Columbia  ©nitier^itp 

int^rCttpoflmgark 


LIBRARY 


THE  PROBLEM 
OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 


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THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

MBW  YORK    •    BOSTON  •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA  •    SAN  FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MBLBOURNB 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


THE  PROBLEM 
OF   CHRISTIAN    UNITY 


BY 

VARIOUS  WRITERS 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1921 

JLll  rights  reserved 


A  COURSE  OF  SEVEN  ADDRESSES 

UNDER  THE  AUSPICES  OF  THE 

CHRISTIAN  UNITY  FOUNDATION 


COPTEIGHT,    1921, 

By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published,  January,  1921 


INTRODUCTION 

The  Interest  in  Christian  Unity  has  greatly  in- 
creased during  the  last  ten  years.  This  is  due  to 
several  causes,  the  chief  one  being  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  Churches  that  a  divided  Christendom 
does  not  witness  to  the  unity  that  is  in  Christ  and 
that  a  divided  Church  cannot  accomplish  the  tasks 
that  are  everywhere  challenging  it.  As  a  result 
of  this  conviction  efforts  are  everywhere  being 
made  to  remove  those  barriers  that  have  for  ages 
separated  the  many  communions  of  the  one 
Church  and  to  find  some  basis  for  reunion  on 
which  all  may  achieve  that  oneness  for  which  our 
Lord  prayed. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  survey  these  efforts, 
and  this  has  been  done  to  some  extent  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapters.  They  have  found  expression  in 
two  directions.  There  have  been  the  various  fed- 
erations of  churches  in  England,  Switzerland, 
France  and  America,  where  the  several  denomina- 
tions —  in  our  own  land  over  thirty  —  have 
united  for  the  common  achievement  of  common 
tasks.  These  federations  have  done  much  to  pre- 
pare the  way,  for  they  have  greatly  increased  the 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

acquaintance  of  the  denominations  with  one  an- 
other, increased  mutual  respect,  and  revealed  that 
the  things  held  in  common  vastly  outweigh  the 
things  that  divide. 

But  it  is  with  the  organic  unity  of  the  Church 
that  the  world  is  more  and  more  concerning  it- 
self. During  the  last  ten  years  there  have  been 
more  conferences  on  unity  than  in  the  previous 
fifty  years.  The  various  communions  in  America 
have  established  commissions  on  unity  or  on  faith 
and  order,  and  these  commissions  have  been  meet- 
ing frequently  for  conference.  Representatives 
of  the  Anglican  Church  and  the  Free  Churches 
have  held  frequent  meetings  in  Great  Britain. 
Out  of  these  meetings  in  America  and  Great  Brit- 
ain has  come  the  important  World  Conference  on 
Faith  and  Order  which  met  in  Geneva  during  Aug- 
ust, 1920.  The  Christian  Unity  Foundation  of 
America  has  been  holding  frequent  conferences 
between  representatives  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  and  representatives  of  other  com- 
munions. Out  of  these  various  movements  in 
America  have  come  interesting  suggestions  for 
practical  steps  toward  reunion,  such  as  the  famous 
Concordat  proposed  by  certain  Episcopalians  and 
Congregationalists.  The  results  of  the  discus- 
sions in  England  are  seen  in  the  remarkable  steps 
forward  taken  in  "  An  Appeal  to  all  Christian 
People,"  issued  by  the  recent  Lambeth  Confer- 


INTRODUCTION  vli 

ence.  In  America  we  have  the  "  American  Coun- 
cil on  Organic  Union,"  which  is  the  outcome  of 
the  various  movements  in  our  country. 

It  is  with  this  problem  of  organic  reunion  that 
this  volume  deals.  Several  of  the  most  eminent 
leaders  of  the  Churches  have  been  persuaded  to 
speak  their  minds  frankly  on  the  whole  subject. 
Here  one  finds  historic  survey  of  the  movement, 
the  causes  of  disunion,  the  obstacles  that  lie  in  the 
way  of  unity,  outstanding  instances  of  reunion, 
especially  as  found  in  the  mission  fields,  a  survey 
of  endeavors  now  being  made,  and  suggestions  for 
immediate  steps.  It  is  a  remarkably  suggestive 
and  stimulating  series  of  papers  and  perhaps  the 
most  comprehensive  treatment  of  the  whole  sub- 
ject of  reunion  that  has  yet  appeared  in  America. 

Frederick  Lynch. 

New  York, 

December  6,  1920. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Can  a  Divided  Church  Meet  the  Challenge 

OF  THE  Present  World  Crisis?  .      ...       i 
Reverend  S.  Parkes  Cadman,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Steps  Toward  Organic  Unity ii 

Rt.  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Garland,  D.D.,  D.C.L. 

Causes  Leading  Up  to  Disunity 29 

Reverend    Arthur    Cushman    McGiffert, 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

Obstacles  in  the  Way 48 

Bishop  William  Eraser  McDovrell,  D.D. 

Unity  in  the  Mission  Field 62 

Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D. 

The  Mind  of  the  Master 84 

Reverend  Henry  Sloane  Coffin,  D.D. 

The  Next  Step 105 

Rt.  Rev.  Ethelbert  Talbot,  D.D. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN 
UNITY 

CAN  A  DIVIDED  CHURCH  MEET  THE 

CHALLENGE  OF  THE  PRESENT 

WORLD  CRISIS? 

By  the  Reverend  S.  Parkes  Cadman, 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

We  all  agree  that  the  Church  must  become  in- 
wardly and  outwardly,  what  her  glorified  Head 
intends  her  to  be:  that  under  no  consideration 
should  any  of  her  children  seek  to  modify  the 
ideal  which  the  New  Testament  presents  concern- 
ing the  authority  and  the  mission  of  the  Church 
as  the  guardian  of  the  Gospel  she  is  commissioned 
to  proclaim  to  all  nations.  We  further  agree  that 
the  Church  should  be  in  every  age  a  sufficient  vehi- 
cle for  the  communication  of  God's  saving  grace 
to  mankind,  and  that  no  views  we  hold  concern- 
ing the  loftiness  and  the  vital  necessity  of  her 
work,  can  exceed  the  realities  therein  involved. 
It  is  upon  the  common  basis  of  these  mutual 
agreements  that  I  speak  to  the  question,  "  Can  a 
divided  Church  meet  the  challenge  of  the  present 


2        THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

world  crisis?".  Speaking  personally,  I  conceive 
of  the  Church  in  the  words  of  St.  Augustine,  who 
averred  that  "  If  God  was  his  Father,  the  Church 
was  his  Mother."  According  to  the  develop- 
ments of  doctrine  in  the  Apostolic  writings,  she  is 
the  present  Body  and  the  future  Bride  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the  dwelling  place  in  her  spirit- 
ual unity  of  the  Paraclete  of  God,  the  pillar  and 
ground  of  the  truth  which  St.  Paul  defines  as 
saving  truth,  the  one  eternal  institution  in  Time, 
which  will  survive  all  other  institutions  of  Time. 
I  see  no  reason  why  we  should  not  cultivate  the 
consciousness  of  her  dignity  and  power  which  has 
its  warrant  in  the  teachings  of  Holy  Scripture. 
Our  ascription  of  ultimate  holiness  and  catholicity 
to  the  Church,  is  the  statement  in  language  fa- 
mihar  to  Christian  men  and  women,  of  Professor 
Huxley's  prediction  that  the  only  rational  goal  for 
the  continuous  progress  of  the  race  is  an  ultimate 
perfectibiHty.  Surely  we  know,  if  we  know  any- 
thing at  all,  that  Christian  history  and  Christian 
experience  point  to  the  triumph  of  the  Church  as 
consisting  in  this  perfectibility.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  lamentable  indefiniteness  in  our  interpre- 
tation of  the  essential  nature  and  meaning  of  the 
Church  which  will  have  to  be  removed  if  the  unity 
of  which  the  Bishop  has  so  ably  spoken  is  to  ob- 
tain. I  need  not  remind  you  that  both  Prot- 
estantism and  Catholicism  are   on  trial,   and  if 


THE  PRESENT  WORLD  CRISIS  3 

they  are  to  emerge  purified  and  strengthened  from 
the  tests  imposed  upon  them,  all  faithful  lovers  of 
the  Master  will  have  to  discern  in  the  Church  the 
entire  congregation  of  souls  re-born,  gathered  out 
of  every  nation,  fused  into  spiritual  homogeneity, 
animated  by  the  indwelling  life  of  the  Spirit, 
broadly  and  securely  founded  upon  the  Person, 
the  Work,  the  Priesthood  and  the  Reign  of  Jesus 
Christ.  That  is  the  real  catholicity  which  sees  in 
the  past,  the  present,  and  the  future  of  the  Eccle- 
sia  the  outworking  of  one  Divine  Design,  slowly 
appearing  from  beneath  the  wear  and  waste  of 
human  agencies.  Such  a  catholicity  esteems  the 
Church  capable  of  universal  service,  sacrifice,  loy- 
alty, and  holds  that  she  will  grow  up  into  her 
Living  Head  in  all  things,  fulfilling  every  religious 
obligation  and  responding  to  every  just  social 
demand.  The  breach  between  these  conceptions 
and  our  actual  conditions  is  indeed  wide,  but  can 
we  not  span  it  with  our  faith,  hope  and  charity? 
There  will  be  a  day  when  the  various  flocks  will 
be  gathered  Into  one  fold,  under  one  Shepherd. 
Hence,  we  should  be  chary  about  establishing  our 
own  altars  and  covenants,  and  be  more  intent  upon 
making  the  Church  the  alter  ego  of  her  Lord  than 
upon  the  sectional  interests  which  have  too  often 
monopolized  our  thought  and  energy.  She  Is  the 
priestess  of  the  world,  offering  for  the  world  the 
homage  it  frequently  forgets  to  offer  for  itself, 


4       THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

pledged  to  Its  service,  and  to  sacrifice  In  Its  behalf. 
No    one   who    understands    denominatlonalism 
will   speak   harshly   of    Its    past.     Its    respective 
forms    and    organizations   have    endeared    them- 
selves to  the  servants  of  God  because  of  their  im- 
memorial associations  In  righteous  causes  and  their 
notable    contributions   to    the    evangelization    of 
mankind.     The  quiet  devotion  of  the  Friend,  the 
intellectual  Integrity  of  the  Calvlnistic  churches, 
the    liberty   loving   propensities    of    the    Puritan 
churches,    the    Apostolic    zeal    of    the    spiritual 
children   of   the   Evangelical   Movement   of   the 
eighteenth  century,  the  educational  processes  of 
Lutheranism,    and   the   reverent   and  worshipful 
characteristics  of  Anglicanism  have  alike  enriched 
and  hallowed  the  praise  of  the  sanctuary,   and 
fostered  the  growth  and  the  benefits  of  our  com- 
mon Faith.     Yet  until  recently,  separative  factors 
have  had  a  period  of  unrestrained  eulogy  in  which 
historical  accuracy  and  judicial  fairness  have  oc- 
casionally suffered.     At  the  summit  of  their  sway, 
those  factors  did  not  capture  the  world  to  which 
they  were  so  sedulously  presented.     Nationalism 
has  proved  sufl^clently  strong  to  crush  an  artifi- 
cial    over-balance     of     destructive     imperialism. 
Nevertheless,  far-visioned  statesmen  are  not  con- 
vinced that  nationalism  Is  the  final  goal  of  Chris- 
tian civilization.     In  like,  manner.  Protestantism 
has    redressed    ancient   wrongs    in    the    Church, 


THE  PRESENT  WORLD  CRISIS  5 

colonized  States,  kept  faith  with  Biblical  teach- 
ing, restored  preaching  to  its  Apostolic  honor, 
and  been  the  companion  and  the  conscience  of 
much  civil  and  religious  liberty.  But  the  passion 
for  doctrinal  systems  and  exclusive  creeds  which 
raged  with  uncontrollable  force  for  the  past  four 
hundred  years  has  divided  the  empire  of  Protes- 
tantism. Her  doctors  seemed  to  agree  on  little 
except  that  there  could  be  no  such  thing  as  an 
open  question  among  Christian  men.  The  quar- 
rels of  these  dogmatists,  which  absorbed  their 
minds,  are  short-lived  and  unimportant  when 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  eternal  cosmos  which 
is  being  built  up  by  every  Christ-like  interest 
of  mankind.  Their  historic  separatisms  have 
cease'd  to  charm.  Enlightened  spirits,  weary  of 
arid  controversies,  feel  that  the  matters  about 
which  those  controversies  centered  are  as  dust  in 
the  balances  when  compared  with  the  glorious 
truths  upon  which  all  Protestants  are  agreed.  In 
the  meantime  the  relationships  of  nations  in  Hter- 
ature,  in  art,  in  science,  in  commerce,  in  things 
conducive  to  their  welfare,  and  also,  things  con- 
ducive to  their  disaster,  have  become  more  inti- 
mate, responsive,  and  complicated.  This  evolu- 
tion of  human  Hfe  begets  in  those  who  mark  its 
unfoldings  the  virtue  of  tolerance;  the  knowledge 
of  it  cultivates  the  historic  perspectives  which 
shape  the  informed  Christian's  verdict,  without 


6        THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

which  he  magnifies  the  trivial,  slights  the  impor- 
tant, and  may  inflame  the  antagonistic  elements 
of  society.  We  are  confronted  in  our  sectarian 
affinities  with  the  gigantic  problem  of  running 
order  through  chaos,  discipline  through  freedom, 
unity  through  multiplicity.  This  problem  has  al- 
ways been,  and  perhaps  always  will  be,  the  test 
of  the  Divine  Society;  the  moral,  not  alone  of 
Religion,  but  of  every  undertaking  and  economy 
of  life.  Multitudes  of  earnest  and  seeking  indi- 
viduals are  Inquiring  why  it  Is  that  Protestantism, 
the  great  architect  of  free  and  moralized  com- 
munities, cannot  find  a  solvent  for  the  standing 
riddle  of  freedom  with  obedience,  and  place 
against  the  overweening  claims  of  political  states 
the  claims  of  the  Moral  Sovereign  of  the  Uni- 
verse. Evidently  sectarianism  has  seen  its  meri- 
dian, and  if  it  be  true  that  nations  must  agree  or 
perish,  it  is  almost  more  true  that  denominations 
must  do  likewise  or  meet  the  same  end.  Such  af- 
firmations are  of  course  conditioned  by  the  unde- 
termined values  of  twentieth  century  thought, 
but  a  forecast  for  the  Church  compels  the  con- 
clusion that  her  growing  desire  for  unity  must 
be  nourished  by  prayer,  by  discourse,  by  a  sub- 
mission of  our  deepest  wishes  to  the  guidance  of 
the  Eternal  will.  Should  the  Church  refuse  to 
deal  cnndidly  with  this  laudable  Instinct  for  one- 
ness, which  I  believe  Is  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit,  the 


THE  PRESENT  WORLD  CRISIS  7 

Lord  of  all  ages  may  again  assert  His  supremacy 
as  He  did  in  the   sixteenth  century,  or  in  even 
more  surprising  ways  than  those  experienced  in 
that  great  upheaval.     The  fate  that  has  doomed 
States   which   nursed   disruptions   will   not   spare 
churches  that  set  the  part  above  the  whole,  heed- 
less  of  the  signs  of  the  times.     The  world  re- 
fuses to  be  either  Romanized  or  Protestantized.^ 
It  demands  that  Christian  organizations  forsake 
a  hollow  and  transient  truce,   and   arrive   at  an 
equitable  and  a  settled  peace.     We  cannot   for- 
ever be  disputing  the  exact  origins  of  the  streams 
at  which  men  quench  their  spiritual  thirst.     It  is 
our  chief  duty  to   replenish  them  in  order  that 
they  may  irrigate  larger  areas.     Union  would  give 
us  a  working  basis  from  which  to  attack  the  in- 
iquities that  have  agreed  while  churchmen  have 
wrangled.     It  v^^ould  neutralize  the  sharpness  of 
the  controversial  spirit  by  the  forbearance  of  the 
fraternal  spirit.      It  would  call  a  halt  upon  the 
hosts    of    non-church-going    nominal    Protestants 
who  in  their  manner  of  living  are  sometimes  act- 
ual pagans,  who  acknowledge  no  religious  control, 
and   resent   the    preacher's    attempt    to    regulate 
life  by  the  austere  standards  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment.    I   need  say  nothing  about  the  waste   of 
means  and  men,  the  overlapping  and  the  mutual 
weakenings,    which    sectarianism    has    involved. 
These  losses  are  before  us  all,  and  their  bearing 


8        THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

upon  the  efficiency  of  the  ministry  in  the  near  fu- 
ture weighs  heavily  upon  hearts  of  those  who 
love  the  Kingdom  of  God  supremely.  They 
recognize  that  the  function  of  the  Gospel  and  of 
the  ministry  is  not  sectarian,  nor  national,  nor 
even  international,  but  supernational,  as  every 
advocate  of  Christ  in  non-Christian  lands  can 
testify. 

Of  course  the  pulpit  has  a  premier  place  in 
Protestantism,  but  the  intellectual  vigor  which 
should  have  been  consecrated  to  its  great  office 
has  not  been  available  in  the  last  decades.  Nor 
is  it  a  harsh  criticism  to  say  that  it  was  not  in- 
tended for  the  life  of  the  Church  to  find  its  only 
outlet  in  sermons.  No  single  method  of  trans- 
mission, however  venerable  and  blessed,  exhausts 
the  possibilities  of  the  Evangel.  Unity  will  not 
be  well  begun  in  preaching  any  more  than  in  the- 
ology. But  it  is  already  existent  in  worship,  In 
the  symbolism  and  the  hymnology  that  express 
the  spiritual  aspirations  of  the  worshipers. 
The  mystical  blending  of  things  seen  and  unseen 
in  the  Christian  system  instructs  us  that  the  Awful 
Being  raised  above  the  sphere  of  sense  is  not 
beyond  the  reach  of  sensory  perceptions.  The 
Incarnation  pierced  the  vail,  and  caused  St.  John 
to  rejoice  over  what  the  eyes  of  the  first  disciples 
had  seen,  and  their  hands  had  handled,  even  the 
Word  of  Life.     The  state  is  lavish  in  symbol- 


THE  PRESENT  WORLD  CRISIS  9 

ism.  It  garlands  Its  streets,  and  greets  its  heroes, 
and  utilizes  every  available  appeal  which  im- 
presses the  public  imagination  with  the  majesty 
of  the  nation.  What  have  we  done  in  our  hole- 
and-corner  sectarianism  to  exalt  the  Eternal  Con- 
queror returning  from  the  battle  with  sin  and  death 
in  solitary  triumph?  I  admire  the  Salvation 
Army  for  displaying  its  banners  and  uniforms  on 
the  streets,  for  its  decisive  efforts  to  make  our 
Faith  known  to  the  casual  passer-by.  Denomina- 
tions, creeds,  theologies,  sermons,  propaganda, 
exist  for  the  Church,  not  the  Church  for  them; 
and  churches  exist,  not  solely  for  the  edification 
of  believers,  still  less  for  the  display  of  erudition 
or  of  eloquence,  but  that  the  life  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  shall  be  quickened  and  developed  in  them; 
diffused  abroad  through  them  by  every  method 
Christ  has  sanctioned,  and  every  avenue  of  spirit- 
ual approach  and  influence  Christian  history  has 
approved.  We  do  not  expect  the  unification  of 
Protestantism  to  mature  in  a  brief  period.  It  is 
wiser  to  let  so  noble  a  cause  develop  in  the  way, 
such  causes  usually  take.  It  may  require  half 
a  millennium  to  repair  the  breaches  in  the  walls  of 
the  City  of  God.  But  it  is  our  inestimable  priv- 
ilege to  plead  for  its  benefits,  and  to  observe  its 
genesis.  The  undertaking  will  entail  a  more  res- 
olute faith,  a  rarer  devotion,  a  diviner  love,  than 
we  possess.     That  these  are  already  leavening  the 


lo      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

churches  I  humbly  believe,  and  I  foresee  the 
Church  of  the  future  as  a  corporate  whole,  elastic 
enough  to  accommodate  difference  in  non- 
essentials, with  a  simple  but  catholic  doctrine,  a 
common  worship,  a  mission  which  has  no  boun- 
daries in  a  world  which  the  Lord  of  all  has  Re- 
deemed. 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY: 
THE  PRESENT  SITUATION 

By  the  Right  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Garland 
D.D.,  D.C.L. 

The  great  schism  between  the  East  and  West 
may  be  dated  from  867  A.  D.  when  it  began,  or 
1054  when  it  was  practically  completed.  During 
the  following  centuries  many  attempts  at  reunion 
were  made,  but  the  fall  of  Constantinople  in  1452 
brought  all  negotiations  to  an  end.  In  England, 
the  Reformation  made  great  changes:  definite 
schism  there  may  be  placed  about  1574  when  the 
Roman  Catholics  were  ordered  to  withdraw  from 
the  communion  of  the  Church.  With  the  politi- 
cal disorder  and  intellectual  renaissance  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  we  are  not  surprised  that  in  the  un- 
restricted use  of  the  right  of  an  ecclesiastical  self- 
determination,  disorder  manifested  itself  by  sepa- 
ration into  many  religious  bodies.  The  unity  of 
the  Church  was  broken;  new  standards  of  faith, 
new  conceptions  of  the  Ministry  of  the  sacra- 
ments, and  of  the  government  of  the  Church  were 
promulgated.  It  is  true  that  thoughtful  men  in 
all  churches  realized  the  danger  of  such  a  trend, 


12     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

and  after  the  rise  of  the  Puritans,  many  attempts 
at  reunion  were  made  in  England  as  well  as  on 
the  continent.  In  the  latter  many  prominent 
Protestants  and  Roman  Catholics  took  part  (e.g., 
Grotius,  who  first  attempted  to  get  a  union  of  all 
Protestant  bodies  and  later  considered  reunion 
with  Rome),  also  the  philosopher,  Leibnitz.  On 
the  Roman  side  were  such  men  as  Bishop  Bossuet 
and  Bishop  Spinola.  An  interesting  article  on 
Bossuet's  correspondence  with  Leibnitz  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Constructive  Quarterly  of  last  De- 
cember. 

Many  references  have  been  made  to  the  effort 
to  restore  the  Episcopate  to  Scotland  in  1610,  but 
it  should  be  added  that  in  1661  an  appeal  was 
made  to  England  for  the  reestablishment  of  the 
Episcopal  Succession. 

During  the  i8th  century.  Reunion  was  little 
thought  of  —  in  fact,  in  England  there  was  wit- 
nessed the  largest  and  most  needless  separation,  in 
the  case  of  the  Methodists, —  who  in  a  spiritually 
unsympathetic  age,  were  practically  driven  out  of 
the  Church  of  England. 

About  the  middle  of  the  19th  century.  Re- 
union was  for  the  first  time  officially  brought  to 
the  attention  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  in  a  memorial  to  the  General  Con- 
vention of  1853.  Finally  in  1886,  the  Quadrilat- 
eral was   adopted.     As   slightly   altered   at   the 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY      13 

Lambeth  Conference,  the  articles  were  as  follows : 

a.  The  Holy  Scripture  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  as  "  containing  all  things  necessary  to 
salvation  "  and  as  being  the  true  and  ultimate 
standard  of  Faith. 

b.  The  Apostles'  Creed  as  the  Baptismal  Sym- 
bol; and  the  Nicene  Creed  as  the  sufficient  state- 
ment of  the  Christian  Faith. 

c.  The  two  sacraments  ordained  by  Christ  him- 
self—  Baptism  and  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  — 
ministered  with  unfailing  use  of  Christ's  words  of 
institution,  and  of  the  elements  ordained  by  Him. 

d.  The  Historic  Episcopate,  locally  adapted  in 
the  methods  of  its  administration  to  the  varying 
needs  of  the  nations  and  people  called  of  God 
into  the  unity  of  His  Church. 

This  may  be  largely  regarded  as  the  beginning 
of  the  modern  movement.  One  has  only  to  men- 
tion the  Evangelical  Alliance,  the  Bonn  Confer- 
ences, the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Conference,  the 
Commission  on  Faith  and  Order,  the  Free 
Church  Alliance,  etc.,  to  illustrate  the  fact  that 
in  recent  years.  Reunion  has  been  one  of  the  chief 
topics  in  the  Christian  world.  This  movement 
has  crystallized  into  conferences  between  repre- 
sentatives of  various  churches  in  Russia,  in  China, 
in  Japan,  in  Australia,  in  Africa,  in  England,  in 
Canada,  as  well  as  in  the  United  States. 

The  fact  is  that  every  intelligent  man,  what- 


14      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

ever  his  opinion  may  be,  must  concede  that  he 
cannot  defend  division.  In  the  last  few  years, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  World  War,  there  has 
been  a  growing  demand  for  democracy  —  for  the 
manifestation  of  human  brotherhood.  A  divided 
Church  cannot  lead  this  movement,  yet  the  Church 
must  lead  it  or  Socialism  will.  If,  as  we  beheve, 
Christ  is  the  center  of  unity,  then  those  who  be- 
lieve in  Him  must  make  His  Church  the  inspira- 
tion, the  leader  and  the  center  of  human  brother- 
hood. 

The  missionary  awakening  of  the  Church  and 
the  union  of  democratic  nations  in  the  War,  the 
ministrations  of  chaplains  to  men  of  every  reli- 
gious communion,  receiving  them  into  the  mem- 
bership of  their  respective  churches,  have  done 
much  to  break  down  barriers  and  to  promote  the 
"  will  of  unity." 

To  refer  again  briefly  to  the  history  of  the  past, 
It  might  be  said  that  in  the  early  Church,  schism 
and  heresy  had  reference  chiefly  to  doctrine  and 
not  order. 

In  the  middle  ages,  the  main  objections  of  the 
Puritans  and  others  in  England  and  Scotland 
were  to  the  State  Constitution  of  the  Church  and 
not  primarily  to  Episcopacy  or  Doctrine.  A  clear 
statement  of  this  fact  may  be  found  in  the  words 
of  the  late  Moderator  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
of   Scotland,   the   Ve«ry   Rev.    Dr.    Cooper,   who 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY       15 

writes:  **  When  Episcopacy  was  discarded  in 
Scotland  it  was  due  to  the  intrusion  of  the  civil 
power  rather  than  any  strong  difference  of  prin- 
ciple " ;  "  Episcopacy  had  become  hopelessly 
Erastian." 

In  these  modern  days,  the  objections  are  chiefly 
centered  in  differences  as  to  government  and 
order. 

During  the  last  ten  years,  the  leaders  of  the 
Church,  like  Gaul,  have  been  divided  into  three 
parts : 

The  first  believed  that  we  should  seek  Reunion 
with  those  who  are  our  kith  and  kin  —  the  Pro- 
testant churches  which  dominate  Anglo-Saxon 
Christendom. 

The  second,  though  willing  to  confer  with  all, 
thought  that  no  real  effort  toward  Reunion  should 
be  made  until  the  Roman  and  Eastern  Churches 
were  ready  to  agree  on  terms. 

The  third  took  no  interest  in  the  matter. 

The  second  party  is  now  negligible.  The  War 
has  changed  some  of  its  adherents  into  earnest 
advocates  for  Reunion  with  Protestant  bodies. 

The  third  party  is  also  growing  numerically 
smaller  and  on  all  sides  there  seems  to  be  a  desire 
for  Organic  Union,  though  there  are  still  some 
who  believe  that  an  alliance  or  federation  is  all 
that  is  possible  or  desirable. 

Five  important  conferences  should  be  consid- 


i6      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

ered  in  this  paper  —  in  Canada,  Australia,  South 
Africa,  England  and  in  the  United  States. 

Canada 

From  1899  to  1903  preliminary  conferences 
were  held  looking  toward  organic  union  of 
the  Presbyterian,  Methodist  and  Congregational 
Churches.  These  crystallized  in  1909  and  19 10, 
and  a  definite  attempt  was  made  to  seek  the  ap- 
proval of  the  governing  bodies  and  the  members 
of  the  respective  churches  on  a  proposed  Basis  of 
Union  for  the  United  Church  of  Canada.  About 
sixty-five  per  cent,  of  the  members  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  voted  in  favor  of  the  project. 

In  the  Methodist  and  Congregational  Churches, 
over  eighty  per  cent,  were  favorable.  The  lat- 
ter bodies  were  in  favor  of  proceeding  but  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
decided  that  it  was  unwise  to  consummate  the 
union  with  such  a  large  minority  unconvinced,  and 
hoped  that  further  conference  and  discussion 
might  bring  unanimous  action. 

In  December,  19 14,  representatives  of  the  three 
Churches  agreed  upon  an  amended  basis  of  union 
which  included  twenty  articles  of  doctrine.  The 
statement  issued  by  the  Presbyterian  contains  the 
following  summary  of  reasons  for  the  union. 
a.  the  conditions  of  our  newer  West. 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY       17 

b.  the  weakened  state  of  rural  churches  In 
older  Canada. 

c.  the  social  disorders  of  city  slums. 

d.  the  problem  of  the   foreigner. 

e.  the  needs  of  the  heathen  world. 

As  far  back  as  1906  the  Archbishops  and 
Bishops  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Canada, 
were  requested  to  appoint  a  Committee  to  par- 
ticipate In  the  discussions,  but,  though  the  reply 
was  cordial  and  a  special  committee  was  ap- 
pointed, the  Committee  on  Church  Union  of  the 
General  Synod  did  not  appoint  a  Committee  to 
confer  with  them.  It  is  probable  that  they  felt 
that  the  time  had  not  yet  come  to  sufficiently  ex- 
tend the  proposed  Basis  of  Union  to  meet  the 
views  of  the  Church  of  England  In  Canada. 

In  Australia 

The  movement  towards  unity  In  Australia, 
though  inaugurated  after  that  of  Canada,  Is  of 
greater  importance  as  It  afforded  a  more  tangible 
basis  for  Organic  Union,  and  was  the  first  definite 
effort  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  Christian 
world  a  possible  plan  for  Its  consummation  on 
the  basis  of  the  Quadrilateral.  Though  full  of 
difficulties,  It  was  approached  by  Anglicans  and 
Presbyterians  with  an  honest  and  prayerful  de- 
sire to  recognize  all  essentials,  and  to  reconcile,  as 


i8      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

far  as  possible,  all  differences  and  non-essentials. 
After  several  years'  consideration,  in  1906-7  reso- 
lutions were  agreed  upon  practically  adopting  the 
Quadrilateral  with  some  modifications  of  No.  4, 
and  containing,  among  others,  the  following  state- 
ments : 

9.  We  recognize  that  up  to  the  period  of  the 
Reformation  there  was  one  common  succession  of 
Orders,  and  that,  since  that  time,  the  practice  of 
Ordination  has  been  continued,  and  the  Act  of 
Ordination  has  been  performed  (a)  in  the  Ang- 
lican Church  by  a  Bishop  and  Presbyters,  (b)  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church  by  a  Presbytery  presided 
over  by  a  Moderator. 

10.  That  a  union  of  the  Church  of  England  in 
Australia  and  Tasmania  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Australia  be  effected  and  consummated 
by  a  joint  Solemn  Act  under  the  Authority  and 
sanction  of  both  Churches,  in  which  each  Church 
shall  confer  upon  the  Presbyters  of  the  other  all 
the  rights  and  privileges  necessary  for  the  exercise 
of  their  office  in  the  United  Church,  so  that  from 
the  moment  of  such  Union,  all  the  Presbyters  of 
each  Church  shall  have  equal  status  in  the  United 
Church. 

These  resolutions  were  approved  by  the  Com- 
mittees of  Conferences  of  the  Church  of  England 
in  Australia  and  Tasmania,  and  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Australia, 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY       19 

and  also  by  the  Methodist  Church,  excepting  ar- 
ticle ten,  providing  for  the  reciprocal  conferring 
of  authority  and  sanction. 

There  Is  no  use,  however.  In  minimizing  the 
fact  that  though  not  confessedly  Insuperable,  the 
negotiations  did  not  evolve  a  solution  of  the 
problem  of  a  satisfactory  recognition  of  orders  In 
all  churches. 

The  Influence  of  these  conferences,  however, 
was  specially  noticeable  In  our  own  country.  In 
March,  19 13,  at  a  conference  of  the  Christian 
Unity  Foundation,  representatives  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church  and  of  the  Disciples  of  Christ,  ex- 
pressed sympathy  with  the  general  purpose  of  the 
movement.  Two  months  later,  similar  resolu- 
tions were  passed  at  a  conference  held  by  the 
Christian  Unity  Foundation,  with  representatives 
of  the  Presbyterian,  Congregational  and  Baptist 
Churches. 

To  briefly  review  up  to  this  point,  we  have  seen 
that  though  the  modern  movement  was  formally 
launched  in  America  through  the  adoption  of  the 
Quadrilateral,  it  was  In  Canada,  Australia  and 
Africa  that  the  most  definite  and  concrete  at- 
tempts were  made  to  solve  the  problem  of  our 
differences.  So  again,  during  the  stress  of  war, 
it  was  from  England  that  we  received  the  most 
noticeable  contribution  of  progress. 

As  a  result  of  the  preliminary  conference  of 


20      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

representatives  of  the  Anglican  and  Free  Church 
Commissions  on  Faith  and  Order,  a  sub-commit- 
tee was  appointed  which  unanimously  agreed  on 
two  reports.  I  want  to  refer  specially  to  the 
second  interim  report  which  aroused  great  inter- 
est, and  which  has  been  widely  discussed  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

The  report  is  based  on  two  convictions;  first, 
that  unity  is  essential  to  the  purpose  of  Christ 
for  His  Church,  and  for  its  effective  witness  and 
work  in  the  world.  Second,  that  the  abstract  dis- 
cussion of  the  origin  of  Episcopacy  historically, 
and  its  authority  doctrinally,  should  be  discussed 
at  the  conference  in  an  atmosphere  congenial,  not 
to  controversy,  but  to  agreement.  The  report 
then  states  some  conditions  of  any  possibility  of 
Reunion,  from  which  I  briefly  quote : 

1.  That  continuity  with  the  Historic  Episcopate 
should  be  effectively  preserved. 

2.  That  in  order  that  the  rights  and  responsi- 
bihties  of  the  whole  Christian  community  in  the 
government  of  the  Church  may  be  adequately 
recognized,  the  Episcopate  should  re-assume  a 
constitutional  form,  both  as  regards  the  method 
of  the  election  of  the  bishops  as  by  clergy  and 
people,  and  the  method  of  government  after  elec- 
tion.  It  is  perhaps  necessary  that  we  should  call 
to  mind  that  such  was  the  primitive  ideal  and 
practice  of  Episcopacy,  and  it  so  remains  in  many 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY      21 

Episcopal  Communions  to-day,  (e.  g.,  in  the 
United  States). 

3.  That  acceptance  of  the  fact  of  Episcopacy 
and  not  any  theory  as  to  its  character  should  be  all 
that  is  asked  for.  We  think  that  this  may  be  the 
more  easily  taken  for  granted  as  the  acceptance 
of  any  such  theory  is  not  now  required  of  minis- 
ters of  the  Church  of  England.  It  would  no 
doubt  be  necessary,  before  any  arrangements  for 
corporate  reunion  could  be  made,  to  discuss  the 
exact  functions  which  it  may  be  agreed  to  recog- 
nize as  belonging  to  the  Episcopate;  but  we  think 
this  can  be  left  to  the  future. 

It  is  significant  that,  though  many  denounced 
the  report,  the  leaders  welcomed  it.  The  Mod- 
erator of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Scotland, 
preaching  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
endorsed  it  warmly,  and  said:  "I  take  it  for 
granted  that  we  shall  accept  the  fact  of  Episco- 
pacy," and  ''  effectively  preserve  the  continuity  of 
the  historical  Episcopate."      (Dr.  Cooper.) 

For  the  most  recent  development  the  pendulum 
has  again  swung,  and  in  America,  we  have  two 
movements  to  record.  First  in  importance,  the 
action  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  adoption 
in  191 8  of  the  overture  of  Organic  Union.  The 
first  meeting  of  the  committee  was  held  in  Phila- 
delphia in  December  of  the  same  year,  and  was 
attended  by  representatives  of  seventeen  leading 


22      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

Protestant  Churches.  It  was  unanimously  de- 
cided that  the  time  had  come  when  definite  steps 
should  be  taken.  An  ad  interim  committee  was 
appointed  to  carry  forward  the  movement  to- 
wards Organic  Union,  and  to  prepare  a  suggested 
plan.  This  committee  held  many  meetings  and 
discussed  several  plans,  some  of  which  provided 
for  organic  union,  and  others  for  a  federation 
under  a  central  governing  body  with  special  au- 
thority in  matters  of  education,  and  of  missionary 
interests.  The  final  draft  of  the  report  was  sub- 
mitted in  Philadelphia  about  ten  days  ago,  and 
may  be  called  a  Plan  for  Federal  Union.  The 
committee  emphasized  the  following  features  in 
presenting  its  report: 

(a)  That  it  is  in  the  nature  of  a  federal  union 
in  that  the  constituent  churches  cooperate  in  the 
furtherance  of  Christ's  redemptive  work  In  the 
world  through  an  independent  body  by  which 
their  various  joint  activities  are  mediated. 

(b)  That  it  is  an  organic  union  in  that  it  has 
the  vital  principle  of  growth  and  development; 
that  the  Council  had  definite  functions  and  duties, 
and  that  these  functions  and  duties  may  from  time 
to  time  be  developed  in  hke  manner  as  the  func- 
tions of  our  federal  government  in  the  United 
States  of  America  may,  from  time  to  time,  by  Con- 
stitutional Amendment,  be  modified  or  enlarged. 

There  were  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  dele- 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY       23 

gates  present  at  this  conference,  and  all  were  of 
one  mind  in  desiring  that  some  definite  step  should 
be  taken,  though  many  expressed  the  opinion  that 
the  plan  submitted  did  not  provide  for  a  real  or- 
ganic union.  The  Committee,  however,  evidently 
considered  it  as  a  first  step,  as  it  stated  in  its  re- 
port: "  After  It  shall  have  been  in  operation  for 
a  term  of  years,  the  importance  of  divisive  names 
and  creeds  and  methods  will  pass  more  and  more 
into  the  dim  background  of  the  past,  and  acquire, 
even  in  the  particular  denomination  itself,  a  merely 
historical  value,  and  that  the  churches  then  will  be 
ready  for,  and  will  demand,  a  more  complete  un- 
ion; so  that  what  was  the  United  Churches  of 
Christ  in  America,  can  become  the  United  Church 
of  Christian  America,  a  real  ecclesiastical  entity, 
with  ecclesiastical  powers,  holding  and  administer- 
ing ecclesiastical  property  and  funds  of  such 
united  church." 

Twill  conclude  my  historical  references  with 
the  mention  of  the  proposal  for  an  approach 
towards  unity  between  the  Episcopal  and  Congre- 
gational Cliurches,  generally  spoken  of  as  the 
Concordat.  The  object  of  this  is  to  give  Epsico- 
pal  ordination  to  Congregational  Ministers  as  a 
practical  approach  to  visible  unity.  It  was  sym- 
pathetically considered  in  General  Convention, 
and  an  official  commission  was  appointed  to  con- 
tinue conferences  with  Congregationalists  and  re- 


24      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

port  to  the  next  convention,  expressing  the  hope 
that  action  would  then  be  initiated  to  provide  for 
the  proper  canonical  changes  to  put  into  effect  the 
recommendations  of  the  commission. 

Looking  back  on  the  fruits  of  the  modern 
movements,  we  may  mention  as  some  of  its  re- 
sults : 

That  Union  of  the  Congregational  and  Dutch 
Reformed  Churches  in  South  India;  of  the  Presby- 
terian Churches  in  Scotland;  of  eleven  of  the 
Lutheran  bodies  in  the  United  States;  and  the 
agreement  macie  last  month  between  the  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  and  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
South.  We  may  also  mention  the  establishment 
of  colleges  of  divinity  representing  all  the  leading 
churches  in  Australia  and  in  Canada.  I  will  not 
attempt  to  refer  to  the  Oxford  Conferences  of  the 
past  few  years,  or  to  the  Kingsway  Conference,  or 
to  show  how  much  the  cause  of  unity  has  been  pro- 
moted by  our  leading  church  papers  and  maga- 
zines. I  think,  however,  a  special  tribute  should 
be  paid  to  the  Christian  Union  Quarterly  and  the 
Constructive  Quarterly. 

After  this  historical  review,  may  I  be  permit- 
ted to  add  a  few  personal  thoughts?  The  aim  of 
the  last  Oxford  Conference  was  expressed  as  "  not 
merely  to  promote  but  to  secure  Reunion!  ^^ 
That,  it  seems  to  me,  should  be  our  motto.     In 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY      25 

the  Oxford  Conference  of  last  year,  there  are  two 
significant  statements  which  I  quote: 

"  We  are  in  entire  accord  in  our  mutual  Recog- 
nition of  the  Communions  to  which  we  belong  as 
Christian  Churches,  Members  of  the  One  body  of 
Christ;  and  we  record  our  judgment  that  this 
recognition  is  fundamental  for  any  approach  to- 
wards the  realization  of  that  Reunited  Church, 
for  which  we  long  and  labor  and  pray." 

'*  We  recognize,  with  the  Sub-Committee  of 
Faith  and  Order,  in  its  Second  Interim  Report, 
the  place  which  a  reformed  Episcopacy  must  hold 
in  the  ultimate  Constitution  of  the  Re-united 
Church  —  and  we  do  not  doubt  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  will  lead  the  Churches  of  Christ,  if  re- 
solved on  Re-union,  to  such  a  Constitution  as  will 
also  fully  conserve  the  essential  value  of  the  other 
historical  types  of  Church  Polity,  Presbyterian, 
Congregational  and  Methodist." 

I  believe  that  all  the  divisions  since  the  Refor- 
mation have  been  a  struggle  for  some  principle 
that  separatists  conscientiously  felt  was  being 
ignored.  But  the  reasons  for  such  divisions  no 
longer  exist. 

Every  person  receiving  baptism  is  made  a  mem- 
ber of  Christ's  Church  which  is  His  body.  As  all 
baptized  are  equally  members  of  the  body,  there 
is  no  need  for  Reunion  in  this  sense. 


26      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

The  fourth  article  of  the  Quadrilateral  has 
been  generally  considered  the  crux  of  the  problem. 
May  I  suggest  that  instead  of  approaching  this 
article  as  a  desire  to  claim  exclusive  authority,  we 
should  look  at  it  from  the  other  standpoint. 
There  are  many  who  beheve  that  Episcopacy  is 
a  safeguard  for  catholicity  and  for  the  required 
transmission  of  the  historic  ministry,  but  they  do 
not  claim  this  as  their  exclusive  right,  but  as  hold- 
ing it  in  trust  for  all  who  equally  with  them  belong 
to  the  Body  of  Christ,  and  whom  they  recognize 
as  members  of  Christ's  Church.  The  desire  Is 
not  absorption,  but  to  give  to  all  ministers  the 
same  unquestioned  rights  and  privileges  in  the 
Church  of  Christ.  It  is  manifest  that  in  our 
country,  if  there  was  an  organic  union  between 
any  of  the  large  Protestant  bodies,  say  the  Presby- 
terian and  the  Episcopal,  when  one  Ministry  was 
equally  recognized  by  all,  the  former  Episco- 
palians would  be  in  a  hopeless  minority. 

Therefore,  I  maintain  that  in  considering  this 
article,  we  should  not  interpret  it  as  a  special  claim 
for  power  and  authority,  but  as  a  special  privilege 
and  trust  held  by  members  of  the  Church,  not 
for  themselves,  but  to  be  communicated  to  the 
whole  body  for  the  benefit  of  all. 

The  most  vital  question  before  the  Christian 
Church  is  that  of  Organic  Union.  For  years  we 
have  thought,  prayed,  and  talked  about  it ;  now  it 


STEPS  TOWARD  ORGANIC  UNITY      27 

Is  forced  home  upon  our  hearts  and  consciences 
for  solution.  Nations  have  united  In  a  struggle 
for  democracy  and  humanity,  and  without  such 
union  victory  could  not  have  been  won.  As 
Christians  we  believe  In  one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one 
Baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all;  we  sing  "  we 
are  not  divided,  all  one  body  we,"  yet  we  are  di- 
vided and  know  In  our  hearts  that  until  united  we 
cannot  win  the  victory  over  the  forces  of  evil. 
Win  the  compulsive  power  of  our  common  faith 
and  common  purpose  bring  a  union  of  Christian 
forces? 

I  believe  the  time  Is  ripe  for  action.  The  evils 
caused  by  unnecessary  competition,  the  economic 
waste  of  men  and  money,  the  failure  of  a  divided 
Christendom  to  Impress  or  convert  the  world; 
the  desire  to  answer  the  Master's  prayer  "  That 
they  all  may  be  one  " —  all  demand  Immediate  ac- 
tion. In  this  age  of  reconstruction.  It  is  my  pro- 
found conviction  that  God  Is  calling  us  to  follow 
the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  to  unity,  that  He  may 
make  the  new  world  wherein  dwelleth  Righteous- 
ness. The  hour  has  struck:  if  we  fail  to  hear 
God's  call,  it  will  be  another  case  of  the  rejection 
of  the  Olive  Tree.  The  call  comes  specially  to 
us  In  America.  We  have  not  inherited  the  preju- 
dices of  the  past,  or  the  connection  between 
Church  and  State  —  our  Church  governments  are 
representative   and  democratic,   and  we  have  in 


28     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

our  country  representatives  of  all  the  Churches 
in  Christendom. 

Therefore,  let  us  prepare  to  take  the  next  step 
—  believing  that  if  we  agree  on  the  essentials  of 
the  Faith,  the  details  that  must  follow  may  be 
safely  left  to  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
manifested  in  the  council  of  a  united  Church. 

The  steps  taken  in  the  past  fifteen  years  have 
clearly  manifested  an  unsuspected  agreement  in 
the  essentials  of  the  faith, —  the  historical  in- 
vestigation of  our  differences  have  shown  that 
there  is  no  valid  reason  to-day  for  our  continued 
separation ;  In  all  our  Churches  there  is  a  growing 
'*  will  to  unity."  The  present  situation  In  the 
world's  crises  demands  that  we  nail  our  colors  to 
the  mast,  arouse  the  members  of  our  respective 
churches,  and  resolve  ''  not  merely  to  promote^  hut 
to  secure  reunion^' 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY 

By  the  Rt.  Rev.  Arthur  Cushma.n  McGif- 
FERT,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

I  have  been  asked  to  speak  to-day  upon  a 
purely  historical  theme  —  the  Causes  that  have 
led  to  Disunity.  I  shall  try  to  be  as  objective 
as  possible  and  shall  refrain  altogether,  If  I  can, 
from  passing  judgment  upon  the  right  or  the 
wrong  of  the  issues  involved. 

The  divisions  that  have  distracted  Christen- 
dom are  legion.  The  causes  leading  up  to  them 
are  almost  as  numerous  and  various.  Of  course 
it  is  quite  out  of  the  question,  in  the  brief  time  at 
my  disposal,  to  attempt  to  deal  with  all  the  divi- 
sions or  with  any  large  proportion  of  them.  I 
shall  therefore  select  only  a  few  of  the  more  im- 
portant and  significant  In  the  hope  that  in  study- 
ing them  we  may  discover  at  least  the  principal 
causes  that  have  brought  about  disunity  in  Chris- 
tendom. 

The  first  great  division  in  the  Christian  Church 
arose  in  the  second  century  as  a  result  of  the 
Gnostic  controversy.  That  division  was  but 
temporary;  it  lasted  only  a  few  centuries.  But 
it  was  one  of  the  most  significant  the  Church  has 

29 


30      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

seen.  Principles  emerged  at  the  time  which  have 
been  dominant  in  the  Catholic  Church,  both  East 
and  West,  from  that  day  to  this. 

I  cannot  stop,  of  course,  to  discuss  Gnosticism 
in  detail.  I  simply  remind  you  that  the  Gnostics 
were  Christian  philosophers  whose  philosophy 
was  dualistic  in  its  fundamental  aspects.  They 
found  warrant  for  the  belief  that  they  could  legit- 
imately teach  their  philosophy  within  the  Chris- 
tion  Church  in  Paul's  dualism  between  flesh  and 
spirit  and  in  his  doctrine  of  redemption  from  the 
flesh.  But  their  dualism  was  much  more  radical 
and  thoroughgoing  than  Paul's  and  it  led  them  to 
positions,  many  of  which  he  could  not  have  ap- 
proved. For  instance,  it  led  them  to  deny  that 
this  world  was  created  by  God  and  is  under  his 
governance.  This  denial  resulted  in  the  rejection 
of  divine  providence,  which  Jesus  made  so  much 
of  and  which  has  been  so  dear  to  the  Christian 
heart  of  all  generations.  If  this  world  is  not 
God's  world,  divine  providence  is  not  operative 
within  it.  Rejecting  divine  creation  and  provi- 
dence the  Gnostics  were  obliged  also  to  reject  the 
Old  Testament  which  teaches  them  both.  But 
the  Old  Testament  was  the  only  Bible  of  the 
Christians  of  that  day  and  from  it  they  were  in 
the  habit  of  drawing  their  strongest  arguments 
for  the  divine  origin  of  Christianity  and  the 
divine  mission  of  Jesus  Christ.     Again,   it  was 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      31 

impossible  for  the  Gnostics  to  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ,  a  divine  spirit,  had  become  incarnate  in 
human  flesh  and  was  thus  intimately  bound  up 
with  this  evil  humanity  of  ours,  and  so  they  denied 
altogether  the  reality  of  Christ's  earthly  life. 
They  repudiated  also  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh; 
salvation  meant  to  them  as  to  Paul,  escape  from 
the  flesh,  not  the  salvation  of  the  flesh.  But  to 
most  Christians  the  resurrection  of  the  flesh  was 
the  only  guarantee  of  the  reality  of  a  future  life. 
Immortality  is  impossible,  so  they  felt,  unless  this 
body  of  ours  is  raised  again.  Finally  Marcion, 
who  was  closely  connected  with  the  Gnostics  and 
was  commonly  identified  with  them,  rejected  alto- 
gether the  belief  in  divine  judgment.  According 
to  him  the  supreme  God,  the  father  of  Christ,  is 
a  God  of  pure  love  and  mercy  and  never  judges 
or  passes  condemnation  upon  any  one.  But  the 
future  judgment,  with  its  rewards  and  punish- 
ments to  follow,  was  the  chief  reason  in  the  minds 
of  most  Christians  of  that  day  for  living  right- 
eously. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Christian  faith  was  se- 
riously threatened  by  the  teaching  of  these  men, 
and  could  not  long  survive  in  the  form  in  which 
it  had  been  handed  down  from  the  first  century  if 
their  views  were  to  prevail.  As  a  consequence 
Christian  theologians  of  the  second  century  en- 
tered into  controversy  with  them  endeavoring  to 


32      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

prove  them  wrong.  The  Gnostics,  however, 
were  the  ablest  Christian  thinkers  of  the  day  and 
it  w^s  not  easy  to  bring  the  controversy  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue. 

In  the  beginning  Christians  had  trusted  the 
living  Spirit  to  bring  them  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  but  their  early  confidence  now  gave  way  to 
fear  and  the  leaders  of  the  Church  felt  them- 
selves impelled  to  hark  back  to  the  original  de- 
posit of  the  faith  and  to  insist  that  all  the  truth 
God  has  to  reveal  to  men  was  given  through  the 
Apostles,  the  messengers  of  Jesus  Christ.  If  you, 
wish  therefore  to  know  the  truth  unto  salvation, 
you  must  go  back  to  them.  But  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  Gnostics  could  trace  and  did  trace  cer- 
tain of  their  views  to  the  Apostle  Paul,  and  some 
of  them  claimed  oral  traditions  handed  down 
from  others  of  the  Apostles  as  authority  for  their 
teachings.  Their  opponents  were  consequently 
compelled  to  delimit  the  teaching  of  the  Apostles 
more  carefully  and  we  soon  find  Irenaeus,  Bishop 
of  Lyons,  claiming  that  the  Apostles  had  set  forth 
saving  truth  in  certain  books  which  together  con- 
stituted an  apostolic  canon,  our  canon  of  the  New 
Testament.  This  too  in  one  or  another  form  the 
Gnostics  were  quite  willing  to  accept.  They  were 
adepts  in  the  art  of  allegorical  interpretation  and 
they  had  no  difficulty  in  reading  their  doctrines 
into  the  New  Testament.     It  therefore  became 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      33 

necessary  to  find  a  still  more  definite  standard,  and 
this  Irenaeus  found  in  a  form  of  words  which  he 
claimed  had  come  down  from  the  Apostles  and 
which  constitutes  the  original  of  our  so-called 
Apostles'  Creed.  If  then  you  would  know  what 
the  Apostles  taught  you  must  turn  first  of  all  to 
the  creed.  But  again  the  Gnostics  retorted  that 
the  apostolic  origin  of  the  creed  was  doubtful,  and 
in  any  case  the  creed  itself  could  be  read  if  neces- 
sary in  such  a  way  as  not  to  exclude  their  views. 
As  a  consequence  a  third  step  was  taken  of  the 
very  greatest  significance.  It  was  claimed  that 
the  teachings  of  the  Apostles  had  been  handed 
down  by  their  successors,  the  bishops,  and  that  if 
you  wish  to  know  what  the  teaching  of  the  Apos- 
tles is,  if  you  wish  to  know  what  the  true  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures  is,  if  you  wish  to  know 
what  the  creed  is,  you  must  interrogate  these  apos- 
tolic bishops.  Let  me  quote  a  passage  or  two  by 
way  of  illustration.  "  When  they  are  refuted 
from  the  Scriptures,  they  accuse  these  same  Scrip- 
tures as  if  they  were  not  correct  or  authoritative 
and  declare  that  they  are  ambiguous  and  that  it  is 
impossible  for  those  who  are  ignorant  of  tradition 
to  learn  the  truth  from  them.  For  they  main- 
tain that  the  truth  was  handed  down  not  in  writ- 
ing but  by  word  of  mouth.  .  .  .  But  again  when 
we  recall  them  to  that  tradition  which  come  from 
the  Apostles  and  is  preserved  in  the  churches  by 


34      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

the  succession  of  elders,  they  turn  against  tradi- 
tion saying  that  they  themselves  are  wiser  not  only 
than  the  presbyters  but  also  than  the  Apostles  and 
have  found  the  real  truth.  ...  It  comes  there- 
fore to  this  that  they  now  consent  neither  to  the 
Scriptures  nor  to  tradition.  It  is  with  such  per- 
sons, my  friend,  that  we  have  to  contend,  persons 
who  endeavor  to  escape  like  slippery  serpents  any- 
where they  can.  We  must  therefore  oppose  them 
in  every  way  that  if  possible  we  may  confound 
some  of  them  and  bring  them  to  a  knowledge  of 
the  truth.  For  though  it  is  not  easy  for  a  soul 
steeped  in  error  to  repent,  nevertheless  it  is  not 
wholly  impossible  to  escape  error  when  the  truth 
Is  set  In  contrast  with  it.  Thus  it  is  within  the 
power  of  all  in  every  Church  who  may  wish  to 
know  the  truth,  to  discover  the  tradition  of  the 
Apostles  manifested  in  all  the  world;  and  we  are 
able  to  enumerate  those  who  by  the  Apostles  were 
appointed  bishops  in  the  churches  and  to  trace 
their  succession  down  to  our  own  time.  They 
neither  taught  nor  knew  any  such  things  as  these 
persons  rave  about."  (Iren^us,  Adversus  Her- 
eseSy  III,  2  f.)  "Wherefore  we  must  obey 
the  elders  who  are  in  the  Church,  those  as  we 
have  shown  who  are  the  successors  of  the  Apostles 
and  who,  together  with  the  succession  of  the  epis- 
copate have  received  the  sure  gift  of  truth  accord- 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      35 

ing  to  the  pleasure  of  the  Father."  {Ibid  IV. 
26,  2.) 

This  was  quite  conclusive.  With  a  living  au- 
thority it  is  possible  to  determine  beyond  all  cavil 
what  Christian  truth  really  is.  Ecclesiastical 
councils  in  which  the  collective  episcopate  speaks, 
and  thus  the  scandal  of  divergent  infallibihties  is 
overcome,  followed  as  a  matter  of  course. 

In  the  meantime  there  arose  almost  simultane- 
ously a  controversy  over  the  question  of  forgive- 
ness. There  were  those  in  the  earliest  days  who 
thought  that  no  person  who  had  sinned  after  bap- 
tism and  been  excluded  from  the  communion  of 
the  faithful,  should  be  received  again  into  the 
Church.  He  must  be  left  on  the  contrary  to  the 
uncovenanted  mercies  of  God.  But  as  time 
passed  opinion  grew  increasingly  lenient  upon  the 
matter,  and  particularly  under  the  stress  of  the 
Montanistic  controversy  the  leaders  of  the  Church 
were  driven  to  a  more  moderate  position  which 
found  voice  first  in  the  decree  of  Bishop  Callixtus 
of  Rome  in  the  early  part  of  the  third  century. 
The  significant  thing  about  the  degree  is  that 
Callixtus  claimed  he  had  the  right  as  successor 
of  the  Apostles  to  forgive  and  readmit  to  com- 
munion those  who  had  sinned  after  baptism  and 
had  been  excluded  from  the  Church.  The  belief, 
thus  expressed,  together  with  the  other  belief  in 


36     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

episcopal  Infallibility,  was  formulated  by  the 
great  Cyprian  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century 
as  a  part  of  the  Catholic  theory  of  the  Church. 
According  to  that  theory  no  one  can  be  saved 
unless  he  agrees  with  the  apostolic  bishop  in  mat- 
ters of  faith :  the  heretic  will  be  lost.  According 
to  that  theory  also  no  one  can  be  saved  unless  he 
is  in  communion  with  the  apostolic  bishops,  who 
have  grace  not  only  to  interpret  truth  but  also  to 
forgive  sin,  and  consequently  the  schismatic  too 
will  be  lost.  The  theory  was  some  time  in  build- 
ing, but  in  its  essential  features  it  is  as  old  as  the 
second  century,  and  it  has  remained  the  theory  of 
the  Catholic  Church  down  to  the  present  day. 

Of  course  where  this  twofold  theory  prevails,  it 
is  a  relatively  simple  matter  to  keep  the  faith 
pure  and  the  Church  intact.  Here  and  there  may 
be  a  man  or  group  of  men  who  will  break  away, 
but  as  long  as  the  theory  is  maintained  unbroken 
the  Church  as  a  whole  is  bound  indissolubly  to- 
gether. Upon  the  basis  of  the  theory  judgment 
was  passed  now  and  again  upon  this  and  that 
heretic  or  rebel,  and  he  was  excluded  from  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  sole  ark  of  salvation.  But 
though  the  seamless  robe  of  Christ  was  repeatedly 
rent  as  Arians,  Apollinarians,  Donatists,  Pela- 
gians and  the  like  were  condemned  and  excom- 
municated, they  passed  away  one  after  another, 
and  the  great  Catholic  Church  lived  on  secure  with 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      37 

its  Infallible  Interpreter  of  truth  and  its  sole  medi- 
ator of  saving  grace,  the  apostolic  episcopate, 
chief  fruit  of  the  Gnostic  controversy. 

Another  division  to  which  I  wish  to  refer  was 
due  to  altogether  different  causes.  I  mean  the 
division  between  East  and  West  which  culminated 
in  the  year  1054.  Both  East  and  West  alike 
stood  upon  the  Catholic  principle  that  was  formu- 
lated as  a  result  of  the  Gnostic  controversy. 
They  both  believed  heresy  and  schism  to  be  fatal 
and  they  both  applied  the  same  criteria  in  deter- 
mining heresy  and  schism.  But  political  differ- 
ences led  to  a  separation  between  them  and  split 
the  Church  Into  two  halves.  The  division  of  the 
empire  in  Diocletian's  time,  the  building  of  Con- 
stantinople as  the  second  capital  by  Constantlne, 
the  growing  self-consciousness  of  the  eastern  part 
of  the  empire,  the  growing  rivalry  of  the  Roman 
and  Constantlnopolltan  patriarchs,  the  diverse  po- 
litical and  economic  interests  of  East  and  West  all 
led  to  Increasing  estrangement  between  the  eastern 
world  with  its  capital  at  Constantinople  and  the 
western  world  with  its  capital  at  Rome.  And 
not  only  such  differences  as  these  but  also  the  claim 
of  the  Roman  Bishop  that  he  was  Primate  of  the 
world  and  supreme  head  of  the  Church  in  East  as 
well  as  West  promoted  the  estrangement.  Had 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  been  content  to  remain  the 
patriarch  of  the  West,  as  all  acknowledged  him  to 


38      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

be,  the  division  might  have  been  avoided.  But 
instead  it  grew  apace  and  in  the  eleventh  century 
became  permanent.  In  order  then  to  justify  the 
division  on  Catholic  principles,  in  order,  in  other 
words,  to  give  it  a  doctrinal  basis  and  enable  each 
Church  to  claim  that  It  was  alone  the  true  apos- 
tolic Church  of  Christ,  appeal  was  made  to  a 
wholly  unimportant  difference  in  the  text  of  the 
common  creed  —  the  so-called  Nicene  creed  — 
as  used  respectively  in  East  and  West.  In  the 
West  there  had  been  added  more  or  less  Inadvert- 
ently the  phrase  filioque,  so  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  said  to  have  proceeded  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son  Instead  of  from  the  Father  alone  as  in 
the  original  text.  This  addition  was  made  the 
dogmatic  basis  for  the  pronouncement  on  the  part 
of  the  Eastern  Church  that  the  westerners  were 
heretics.  But  it  would  be  a  grave  mistake  to 
suppose  that  the  difference  in  the  form  of  the 
creed  was  the  cause  of  the  schism  or  that  certain 
liturgical  differences  were  the  cause  as  is  often 
said.  It  would  have  been  easy  to  compose  all 
such  differences  had  it  not  been  for  the  political 
issues  that  lay  back  of  them.  The  dogmatic  and 
liturgical  differences  In  fact  were  insisted  on  only 
as  a  justification  of  a  division  already  complete 
on  other  grounds. 

The  schism  between  East  and  West  reminds  us 
of  other  and  more  recent  schisms  in  which  political 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      39 

Interests  have  been  controlling.  For  instance  we 
have  churches  in  this  country  that  are  divided  one 
from  another  simply  because  they  have  come  from 
different  countries  across  the  sea,  as  the  Presby- 
terians from  Scotland  and  the  Reformed  from 
Holland.  Similarly,  as  a  result  of  the  Civil  War, 
there  are  churches  in  the  North  still  divided  from 
churches  in  the  South  with  which  they  were  for- 
merly one,  the  original  reason  for  the  division  be- 
ing purely  political. 

The  third  great  division  to  which  I  wish  to  call 
attention  is  that  between  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants. The  causes  of  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion were  extraordinarily  complex  and  were  dif- 
ferent In  different  countries,  and  different  with 
different  groups  of  men.  With  Luther  himself 
the  controlling  Interest  was  without  question  re- 
ligious. His  gospel  of  the  forgiving  love  of 
God  In  Christ,  precious  to  him  as  a  result  of  years 
of  experience,  led  him  to  Interpret  salvation  as  a 
free  gift  of  God  and  as  a  present  and  not  merely 
a  future  reality.  He  might  have  beheved  thus 
and  yet  not  have  broken  with  the  Roman  Church. 
But  from  the  belief  he  drew  consequences  touch- 
ing the  Church  and  the  hierarchy  and  the  life 
of  the  Christian  which  proved  offensive  and  in- 
tolerable to  the  Catholic  authorities.  The  sig- 
nificant thing  Is  that  when  as  a  consequence  he 
was  excommunicated,  he  did  not  remain  a  lone 


40     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

heretic  but  took  with  him  into  a  new  church  or 
group  of  churches  large  multitudes  of  Christians 
of  the  Western  world.  They  were  moved  by 
all  sorts  of  interests;  some  of  them  by  religious 
interests  as  he  was;  others  by  economic,  political 
or  cultural  interests.  Not  a  few  humanists  went 
with  him  because  they  thought  that  in  the  new 
system  learning  would  be  adva.nced,  though  they 
soon  discovered  their  mistake;  the  peasants 
thought  their  economic  situation  would  be  im- 
proved, though  they  too  were  deceived;  and  many 
princes  joined  the  movement  for  the  sake  of  polit- 
ical advantages. 

Whatever  their  controlling  interests,  the  break 
was  made  possible  only  because  Luther  succeeded 
in  convincing  multitudes  of  his  fellow  Christians 
that  they  might  be  saved  apart  from  the  Catholic 
Church  and  its  hierarchy.  The  moment  they 
were  convinced  of  this,  many  of  them,  eager  for  a 
long  time  to  abandon  the  old  system  on  one  or 
another  ground,  went  with  him  and  Protestantism 
became  an  established  fact.  In  leaving  the  Cath- 
olic Church  Luther  repudiated  the  twofold  prin- 
ciple dominant  In  Catholicism  ever  since  the  third 
century,  both  East  and  West, —  the  infallible  au- 
thority of  the  Catholic  Church,  speaking  through 
its  bishops,  and  the  impossibility  of  salvation  apart 
from  them. 

For  a  time  he  was  content  to  do  without  any 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      41 

definite  authority  beyond  his  doctrine  of  the  for- 
giving love  of  God  in  Christ.  That  seemed  to 
him  adequate  for  every  emergency.  But  grad- 
ually, under  the  pressure  of  the  radicals  on  the 
one  side  and  of  the  conservatives  on  the  other, 
he  was  led  to  identify  his  gospel  of  the  forgiving 
love  of  God  in  Christ,  which  he  had  always  called 
the  word  of  God,  with  the  Scriptures,  and  to  find 
in  them  the  ultimate  authority  for  Christian  truth. 
In  other  words  he  selected  one  of  the  three  au- 
thorities appealed  to  originally  against  the  Gnos- 
tics, centering  attention  upon  it  and  making  it 
final.  The  Catholics,  of  course,  had  never  ques- 
tioned the  authority  of  the  Scriptures  but  had 
only  supplemented  it  by  the  authority  of  an  in- 
fallible Church  or  episcopate.  In  rejecting  the 
infallible  Church  and  episcopate  while  retaining 
an  infallible  Bible  Protestantism  broke  in  part, 
but  only  in  part,  with  the  old  Catholic  system. 

As  a  consequence  of  the  break  not  only  was 
western  Christendom  divided  into  two  hostile 
camps,  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant,  but  the 
Protestants  themselves  were  speedily  split  up  into 
many  warring  sects.  The  belief  that  truth  with- 
out which  men  cannot  be  saved  has  been  infallibly 
revealed, —  that  belief,  if  there  be  an  infallible 
interpreter,  may  not  lead  to  disunity.  On  the 
contrary,  it  may  lead  to  the  closest  kind  of  union. 
But  when  faith  in  the  infallibility  of  the  inter- 


42      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

preter  vanishes  and  every  man  is  left  to  interpret 
the  truth  for  him;self  as  best  he  can,  divisions  are 
bound  to  multiply,  and  it  is  no  accident  that  Pro- 
testantism broke  almost  immediately  into  various 
groups  each  claiming  to  be  in  sole  possession  of 
the  truth.  It  is  evident  that  the  cause  of  these 
divisions  was  the  belief  in  infallible  truth,  which 
must  be  known  for  salvation,  with  the  checks  upon 
that  belief  removed.  If  a  man  must  have  this 
truth  in  order  to  be  saved,  and  if  he  can  get  it 
only  from  the  Scriptures,  he  is  bound  to  think 
some  Scripture  truth  essential  which  others  do  not 
and  to  set  that  up  as  the  basis  of  a  new  sect.  As 
long  as  there  was  an  infallible  interpreter  trusted 
by  all,  division  was  unnecessary.  And  even  when 
the  infallibility  of  the  interpreter  was  less  than 
certain,  as  long  as  salvation  was  to  be  had  only 
within  a  particular  institution,  it  was  a  serious 
thing  to  break  with  it,  too  serious  a  thing  for  most 
Christians  to  venture.  When  both  these  checks 
were  removed  and  Christians  began  to  believe 
that  the  Catholic  Church  was  neither  infallible  nor 
the  sole  ark  of  salvation,  the  break  followed 
as  a  matter  of  course.  And  the  multitudinous 
divisions  within  Protestantism  was  inevitable. 
Everywhere  an  infallible  revelation  was  assumed, 
the  acceptance  of  which  was  necessary  to  salva- 
tion, and  everywhere  there  was  disagreement  as 
to  just  what  that  revelation  contained.     While 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      43 

the  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  in  sole  possession, 
heresy  with  its  resulting  condemnation  and  ex- 
communication was  too  dangerous  to  be  lightly 
faced,  but  in  the  new  situation  to  pass  from  one 
church  to  another  or  to  start  a  new  church  of 
one's  own  was  the  easiest  thing  in  the  world. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion promoted  liberty  but  it  did  so  not  because  of 
any  sympathy  with  liberty,  for  Protestantism  was 
quite  as  intolerant  as  Catholicism,  but  because  in 
the  conflict  of  the  sects  respect  for  authority  and 
the  power  of  control  were  more  and  more  under- 
mined. Such  religious  liberty  as  we  enjoy  in 
modern  times  is  due,  not  wholly  to  be  sure  but  in 
no  small  part,  to  the  fact  that  Christendom  is 
divided  into  countless  sects. 

A  break  even  more  radical  and  far  reaching  In 
its  consequences  than  that  which  took  place  at  the 
Reformation  followed  less  than  a  century  later 
with  the  rise  of  Socinianism.  The  Protestant  Re- 
formation was  in  many  respects  a  mediaeval  move- 
ment. If  one  is  to  draw  a  distinction  at  all  be- 
tween the  Middle  Ages  and  the  modern  age,  the 
Reformation  belongs  on  the  other  side  of  the  line.^ 
Though  it  broke,  as  has  been  seen,  with  certain 
elements  of  the  Catholic  system,  it  retained  among 
other  things  the  traditional  behef  in  the  depravity 
and  helplessness  of  the  natural  man,  a  belief  upon 
which   the   whole   Catholic   system    rests,    for   it 


44      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

makes  absolutely  necessary  a  supernatural,  God- 
given  salvation  and  a  supernatural  God-given 
revelation.  The  Reformers  retained  the  belief  in 
man's  depravity  and  helplessness,  and  with  it  much 
of  the  old  system  founded  upon  it.  The  recogni- 
tion of  the  ability,  and  worth,  and  independence 
of  the  natural  man  which  became  increasingly  com- 
mon in  the  fifteenth  century  and  whose  growing 
prevalence  has  been  taken  by  many  to  mark  the 
principal  contrast  between  the  modern  and  the 
Middle  Ages,  was  not  shared  by  the  Reformers. 
In  this  matter  they  are  genuine  mediasvalists  and 
even  outdid  their  Catholic  contemporaries  in  their 
mediasvalism. 

But  there  were  certain  of  those  who  came  under 
the  influence  of  the  Protestant  Reformation  who 
felt  the  control  of  the  newer  estimate  of  men. 
Many  of  them  were  Humanists  before  they  were 
Protestants.  To  them  the  ability  and  worth  and 
independence  of  the  natural  man  was  a  principle 
of  profound  importance  and  because  of  that  prin- 
ciple they  rejected  not  only  the  old  Catholic  sys- 
tem but  a  considerable  part  of  the  Protestant 
system  as  well.  They  were  represented  in  the 
early  seventeenth  century  by  the  Socinians,  later 
by  the  so-called  rationalists,  and  in  modern  times 
particularly  by  the  Unitarians.  What  they  chiefly 
revolted  against  was  not  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity or  a  particular  interpretation  of  the  person  of 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      45 

Christ,  but  the  estimate  of  man  and  his  needs 
traditional  in  Christianity  since  the  first  century. 

Both  Socinians  and  Unitarians  were  at  first 
devout  believers  in  the  authority  of  the  Bible  and 
appealed  to  it  in  support  of  their  positions,  but 
their  interpretation  of  man  was  such  as  in  the 
end  to  make  infallible  authority  in  religion  as  un- 
necessary as  supernatural  grace,  and  thus  their 
break  with  the  past  became  far  more  complete 
than  the  break  produced  by  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion. By  them,  as  by  multitudes  in  modern  times 
in  all  our  Protestant  communions,  the  old  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant  belief  in  infallible  truth  the 
acceptance  of  which  is  necessary  to  salvation,  has 
been  abandoned,  whether  for  better  or  for  worse, 
and  in  abandoning  it  they  have  removed  one  of 
the  principal  obstacles  to  Christian  unity. 

In  conclusion  I  wish  to  make  three  remarks 
suggested  by  this  historical  sketch.  First,  it 
should  be  noticed  that  the  causes  leading  to  dis- 
unity are  by  no  means  identical  with  the  causes 
that  keep  churches  divided.  The  former  might 
be  wholly  removed  and  yet  reunion  not  be  accom- 
plished. After  division  has  taken  place  all  sorts 
of  new  situations  emerge.  Men  become  attached 
to  the  body  within  which  they  were  born  and  to 
which  they  belong.  Habits  of  mind,  family  affec- 
tions, traditional  loyalties,  love  of  accustomed 
ways  —  many     influences    keep    churches     apart 


46      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

which  had  nothing  to  do  with  parting  them. 
Next  week  I  see  the  subject  Is  to  be  "  Obstacles  to 
Unity  "  and  then  the  practical  question  will  be 
discussed:  What  are  the  grounds  of  continuing 
disunity?  Often  they  are  quite  other  than  the 
original  grounds  of  schism. 

Another  remark  I  should  like  to  make  Is  this. 
As  a  rule  the  reason  for  disunion  given  by  the 
churches  themselves  are  far  from  accurate. 
Commonly  In  the  creeds  and  other  official  docu- 
ments of  the  various  bodies  concerned  the  situa- 
tion is  described  In  a  way  quite  foreign  to  the  real 
facts.  Take  for  Instance  the  Illustration  that  I 
gave  of  the  justification  of  the  schism  between 
East  and  West  by  an  appeal  to  a  verbal  difference 
in  their  respective  creeds.  No  one  could  get  at 
the  real  cause  of  that  schism  by  studying  the  offi- 
cial ecclesiastical  documents.  Similarly  with  the 
creeds  produced  as  a  result  of  the  Reformation  — 
the  Augsburg  Confession,  the  Canons  and  Decrees 
of  the  Council  of  Trent,  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession, the  Thirty-nine  Articles,  and  the  like. 
None  of  them  reveals  the  secret  of  the  break  ex- 
cept in  part.  They  contain  statements  of  the 
faith  of  the  particular  body  which  they  represent 
and  in  that  faith  there  Is  much,  and  it  is  well  that 
there  Is,  In  which  they  all  agree  both  old  and  new. 
And  where  their  statements  disagree,  often  there 
is  least  real  difference.     In  fact  almost  the  last 


CAUSES  LEADING  UP  TO  DISUNITY      47 

place  to  go  for  the  reasons  that  have  led  to  the 
divisions  of  Christendom  is  the  confessions  of 
faith  of  the  various  sects. 

One  more  and  final  remark.  Of  all  the  causes 
that  have  led  to  disunity  the  belief  in  infallible 
truth,  which  one  must  know  in  order  to  be  saved, 
has  been  the  most  potent.  Whether  it  be  a  sound 
belief  or  a  salutary  belief  it  is  not  my  place  to 
discuss  here.  But  I  may  be  permitted  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  it  has  been  without  ques- 
tion the  one  most  fruitful  cause  of  division.  If, 
as  I  have  already  said,  the  belief  in  infallible  truth 
be  conjoined  to  the  belief  in  an  infallible  inter- 
preter, it  may  not  cause  division,  it  may  on  the 
contrary  bind  men  more  closely  together;  but 
divorced  therefrom  it  has  proved  the  most  prolific 
of  all  the  causes  of  disunity.  If  the  Church  as 
a  whole  should  ever  abandon  that  belief,  unity 
would  be  possible  even  with  the  widest  diversity 
of  opinion,  or  if  the  Church  while  retaining  the 
behef  could  in  some  way  secure  universal  agree- 
ment as  to  what  the  truth  Is,  unity  might  equally 
be  maintained.  But  so  long  as  the  belief  persists 
without  universal  recognition  of  an  infallible  in- 
terpreter competent  to  enforce  agreement,  dis- 
union I  suppose  may  be  expected  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past. 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY 
By  Bishop  William  Eraser  McDowell,  D.D. 

I  wish  to  say  as  a  preliminary  statement  that 
this  particular  subject  in  the  list  is  assigned  to  me 
and  not  exactly  chosen  by  me.  I  do  not  say  that 
to  indicate  that  I  would  have  preferred  some  other 
subject  but  only  to  indicate  how  it  chances  that  I 
am  discussing  this  particular  one. 

I  cheerfully  accept  the  subject  with  all  of  its 
limitations,  though  I  speak  under  the  limitation 
of  not  having  heard  any  other  addresses  and  prob- 
ably not  being  able  to  hear  any  of  those  that  shall 
follow. 

I  ought  to  say  also  I  think  that  the  subject  it- 
self, Obstacles  in  the  Way,  does  not  lend  itself  to 
a  large  warmth  of  speech.  I  can  understand  that 
placing  the  obstacles  for  an  obstacle  race,  such 
as  athletic  meets  sometimes  have,  might  be  inter- 
esting. I  can  easily  understand  that  running  a 
race  and  overcoming  the  obstacles  would  be  per- 
fectly thrilling,  but  making  a  card  catalogue  of 
obstacles  would  seem  to  me  rather  dull.  Card 
cataloguing  obstacles  is  pretty  nearly  what  I  am 
asked  to  do,  for,  you  will  observe,  that  I  am  not 
asked  to  discuss  their  removal  or  the  way  to  over- 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  49 

come  them.  I  would  like  to  say  also  In  a  pre- 
liminary way  that  one  speaking  upon  obstacles  Is 
always  liable  to  be  understood  either  as  being  in 
favor  of  them,  or  having  created  them  or  as  ap- 
proving them.  And  if  with  any  degree  of  vivid- 
ness one  describes  the  difficulties  In  the  way  of 
Christian  approach  he  is  quite  likely  to  be  under- 
stood as  having  given  assent  to  these  difficulties 
and  as  having  regarded  them  as  very  good  things 
upon  the  whole. 

Of  course  you  will  not  understand  any  such 
thing  as  that.  You  will  understand  that  I  did 
not  create  these  difficulties  and  I  hope  you  will 
understand  that  I  do  not  approve  them.  And  you 
will  also  understand  that  any  list,  however  full 
and  careful,  that  any  one  person  might  make  in 
half  an  hour's  conversation  upon  this  subject  can 
be  easily  matched  by  another  Hst  just  as  long, 
just  as  important,  and  perhaps  more  Important 
than  the  list  he  mentions.  It  Is  enough  for  what 
we  have  before  us  this  afternoon  if  those  things 
which  I  shall  try  to  mention  are  really  entitled  to 
our  consideration  as  standing  in  any  genuine 
measure  In  the  way  of  the  desires  of  our  hearts. 

Now  with  these  preliminary  statements  may  I 
say  first,  that  in  my  judgment  there  is  the  obstacle 
due  to  the  lack  of  definition  as  to  what  we  actually 
mean  when  we  speak  these  magic  and  heart-warm- 
ing words. 


50      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

What  Is  really  aimed  at?  The  people  of  the 
Churches  hold  their  membership  In  the  Christian 
Church  In  a  form  of  church  life.  Christian  Unity 
is  an  idea  which  has  not  yet  taken  an  organic,  vis- 
ible, definite  form.  You  cannot  point  any  group 
of  thoughtful  people  to  the  thing  and  say:  "  That 
is  it."  Just  by  way  of  illustration,  let  me  read 
you  these  words  from  my  very  dear  friend,  Bishop 
Brent: 

"  If  there  Is  any  one  thing  for  which  I  have  a 
passion.  It  Is  for  the  Unity  of  the  Church  In  ac- 
cordance with  the  mind  of  Christ.  Just  what  out- 
ward form  this  Unity  will  take  I  do  not  know.'* 
Now  this  absence  of  the  definition  Is  one  of  the 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  thing  itself.  Take 
practically  any  town  of  five  thousand  people  and 
under  a  perfect  scheme  of  Christian  Unity,  what 
would  be  the  practical  outcome  In  the  organized 
personal  Christian  life  of  that  community?  You 
understand  that  I  do  not  mention  this  difficulty 
with  approval.  I  mention  it  because  It  consti- 
tutes a  real  difficulty  and  an  obstacle  of  a  real  sort 
in  the  minds  of  very  thoughtful  people. 

What  would  be  the  practical  form  of  Church 
life  In  such  a  town?  What  would  be  the  form  of 
the  organized  Church  life?  Under  a  perfect  ex- 
pression of  Christian  Unity  in  the  given  town, 
what  would  be  the  form  of  Christian  belief  In 
such  a  town?     What  would  be  the  form  of  the 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  51 

Christian  worship  In  such  a  town?  What  would 
be  the  practical  program  of  a  united  Church  In 
such  a  town?  Its  program  locally,  Its  program 
In  the  large  world? 

Now  what  we  have,  we  know  reasonably  well. 
We  are  usually  pretty  conscious  of  the  faults  of 
these  particular  organizations  to  which  we  be- 
long. We  are  a  little  bit  prone  to  Imagine  that 
our  friends  In  other  Churches  have  not  the  diffi- 
culties that  we  have.  It  Is  just  as  well  that  our 
difficulties  appear  to  ourselves  and  do  not  appear 
so  clearly  to  our  neighbors,  and  that  their  diffi- 
culties appear  to  them  and  do  not  appear  so 
clearly  to  us. 

Take  a  concrete  example  of  what  I  am  trying  to 
say  as  to  this  obstacle  that  lies  In  the  absence  of 
definition.  For  three  years  and  a  half,  with 
forty-nine  other  men,  I  have  been  working  upon 
the  problem  of  making  a  form  of  union,  actual 
organic  union  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
South,  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  to 
which  I  belong.  These  Churches  separated  In 
1844,  about  the  slavery  question  in  one  of  the 
phases  of  that  question  that  brought  It  Into  the 
General  Conference  of  that  year. 

Now  In  these  three  years  that  we  have  been 
working  together,  earnestly,  conscientiously, 
prayerfully,  with  an  eager  desire  to  unite  these 
two  kindred  bodies  that  are  supposed  to  have  a 


52      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

common  historical  origin,  that  have  very  similar 
forms  of  government,  virtually  the  same  articles 
of  religion,  and  would  be  presumed  to  have  as 
many  points  In  common  as  It  would  be  possible  to 
find  between  any  two  churches,  when  we  come  to 
the  final  result  of  our  deliberations,  we  find  our- 
selves not  nearly  as  zealous,  for  the  definition  that 
we  have  had  to  make,  as  we  are  for  the  end  that 
we  seek  to  reach. 

Their  Church,  we  know, —  our  Church,  we 
know.  In  either  of  them  many  of  us  could  be 
happy.  In  the  Southern  Church  they  are  happy. 
In  our  Church  we  are  as  happy  as  we  have  a  right 
to  be.  We  are  not  too  happy,  but  we  are  as 
happy  as  we  have  a  right  to  be.  But  we  are  not 
at  all  sure  In  our  minds  that  either  of  us  would 
be  happy  In  the  new  achievement.  In  the  new  ad- 
justment which  we  have  made  or  which  we  are 
trying  to  make. 

Of  course,  the  net  result  of  that  Is  that  If  this 
absence  of  a  definite  and  clear  understanding  as 
to  what  Christian  Unity  actually  means,  Is  In  any 
way  tending  to  keep  Christian  Unity  from  com- 
ing, then  by  some  process,  we  must  arrive  at  some 
definition  of  it  as  will  Immediately  commend  it, 
as  will  fully  commend  it  to  all  this  immense  vari- 
ety of  people  whom  we  seek  to  make  one,  not  in 
any  flat  formal  way  one,  but  virtually  one  In  our 
Lord,  Jesus  Christ. 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  53 

I  would  say  that  a  second  obstacle  Is  due  just  to 
ecclesiastical  inertia,  to  satisfaction  with,  to  com- 
placency in,  the  existing  order.  We  do  not  like  to 
disturb  ourselves.  We  do  not  like  to  break  up 
the  order  we  are  perfectly  familiar  with.  We 
prefer  to  go  on  as  we  and  our  fathers  have  been 
accustomed  to  go.  And  we  do  not  like  to  dis- 
credit what  exists  even  for  some  ideal  that  may  be 
reached. 

It  is  easy  for  us  to  make  flings  at  the  order  that 
now  exists.  The  literature  of  the  day  and  the 
public  speech  of  the  day  are  full  of  merry  gibes  at 
the  infinite  multitude  of  Christian  bodies.  And 
there  is  particular  pathos  expended  upon  the  be- 
wildered heathen  who  are  obHged  to  distinguish 
between  all  the  varieties  of  Christianity,  and  who 
cannot  understand  why  there  should  be  any  varie- 
ties. 

That  does  not  seem  to  me  to  help.  We  do  not 
arrive  at  the  goal  when  we  discredit  the  Chris- 
tianity, the  Churches,  that  are  in  order  to  arrive 
at  something  that  we  hope  to  see.  The  fate  of 
Christianity  Is  In  the  Churches  of  to-day.  The 
achievements  of  Christianity  are  largely  through 
the  Churches  of  to-day  and  there  ought  to  be  a 
better  way  of  overcoming  this  inertia  and  destroy- 
ing this  complacency  in  the  interest  of  the  better 
things  that  we  really  desire. 

Then  these  criticisms  have  the  tendency  to  make 


54      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

people  think  meanly  and  unworthily  of  the  only 
bodies  that  are  now  organized  to  represent  Chris- 
tianity. 

I  would  say  that  a  third  obstacle  is  due  to  our 
real  doubt,  whether  expressed  or  formed  defi- 
nitely, or  lying  unconsciously  or  sub-consciously 
underneath  our  whole  thought  of  the  matter, 
about  the  advantage  of  one  great  ecclesiastical 
Union.     This  runs  back  to  the  first  obstacle. 

We  are  not  quite  sure  though  that  this  would  be 
desirable  if  possible.  We  are  not  quite  sure  but 
that  perhaps  parties  would  arise  within  such  a 
body  that  would  be  just  as  bad  as  the  denomina- 
tions that  now  exist  in  the  Church  as  a  whole ;  and 
we  are  not  at  all  sure  that  Jesus'  prayer  was  a 
prayer  for  one  common  ecclesiastical  body.  He 
was  the  least  ecclesiastical  of  persons.  But  this 
Hes  here  as  a  real  obstacle  in  the  way.  This  is 
a  widespread  doubt,  not  perhaps  a  widespread 
conviction,  but  a  widespread  doubt. 

There  are  feelings  as  a  corollary  to  this  that 
unless  we  can  come  together  on  the  basis  of  abso- 
lute like-mindedness,  that  we  would  better  not 
come  together  at  all,  but  let  each  work  out  its 
own  part  of  Christ's  work  in  the  world  in  its  own 
fashion. 

In  the  fourth  place,  there  is  the  obstacle  due  to 
the  lack  of  a  large  motive.  I  do  not  say  that 
the  large  motive   does  not   exist,  but  the   large 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  55 

motive  does  not  always  prevail  in  the  discussion. 
There  is  a  difference  between  good  motives  and 
large  ones.  The  alphabet  of  the  matter  of  mo- 
tives is  that  motives  must  be  pure.  Probably  the 
motives  for  Christian  Unity  are  clear  and  pure 
and  transparent. 

I  cannot  personally  see  that  any  one  who  is 
sincerely  desiring  to  promote  this  great  end  is 
desiring  to  promote  it  for  any  unworthy  motive. 
If  any  unworthy  motive  should  be  discovered  any- 
where, of  course  that  would  promptly  destroy  all 
possibility  of  cooperation  and  fellowship.  But 
while  it  is  true  that  the  very  beginning  of  the 
matter  of  motives  is  the  item  of  purity,  in  matters 
like  this,  the  essential  quality  of  a  motive  Is  the 
quality  of  size. 

And  you  cannot  float  a  great  enterprise  like  this 
any  more  than  you  can  float  any  other  great  enter- 
prise in  the  world  upon  a  small  motive,  no  matter 
how  pure  that  motive  may  be.  I  suppose  the 
dewdrop  would  be  probably  as  pure  as  the  ocean 
but  the  dewdrop  is  a  pretty  small  matter  as  com- 
pared with  the  ocean. 

It  takes  an  ocean  to  float  the  world's  navies. 
You  remember  some  years  ago  when  Mr.  Twain 
was  discussing  the  need  of  a  new  American  Navy, 
he  said:  "All  we  need  for  the  new  American 
Navy  is  the  proper  number  of  the  right  kind  of 
ships  and  the  proper  number  of  the  right  kind  of 


56      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

men  to  man  them,"  and  then  he  added  dryly: 
"  We  have  the  water." 

Now  Christian  Unity  will  not  float  simply  upon 
the  desire  to  reduce  expenses,  for  it  would  be  a 
means  of  grace  to  many  Christians  or  to  many 
Church  members  whom  I  know  not  to  have  the 
expenses  reduced  in  their  behalf  but  to  have  them 
increased.  The  motive  of  simply  cutting  down 
certain  overlapping  items  is  not  quite  a  sufficient 
motive  to  carry  a  great  enterprise  like  this. 

The  motive  for  the  unity  of  the  Christian 
Churches  must  have  size  enough  to  carry  it,  size 
enough  to  carry  it  over  obstacles  that  are  in  the 
way,  size  enough  to  carry  it  in  the  long  years  in 
which  the  Christian  Church  will  serve  its  Master 
and  Lord. 

Ask  yourselves  these  questions:  Can  a  united 
Church  find  its  mind  and  the  mind  of  Christ  better 
than  a  divided  Church?  And  the  answer  is  not 
in  doubt. 

Can  a  united  Church  find  its  voice  and  utter  the 
voice  of  Christ  better  than  a  broken  and  dis- 
membered Church?  And  the  answer  is  not  in 
doubt. 

Can  one  Church,  one  in  its  passion,  one  in  its 
spirit,  one  in  its  devotion,  one  in  its  opposition 
to  all  evil,  one  in  its  consecration  to  all  good,  be 
used  by  Christ,  the  head  of  the  Church,  in  the 
world's    movements    more    effectually    than    can 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  57 

the  broken  and  dismembered  portions  of  such 
Church?     The  answer  is  not  in  doubt. 

The  motive  therefore  that  is  small  constitutes 
an  obstacle  to  the  result  which  is  large  and  by 
some  process  the  motive  must  be  enlarged  as  well 
as  purified. 

There  is  a  fifth  obstacle  due  to  the  lack  of  a 
satisfactory  plan  or  method,  which  is  a  purely 
practical  matter.  I  was  very  much  interested  in 
what  Dr.  Merrill,  my  very  dear  friend,  said. 
There  are  those  who  have  a  perfectly  easy  ad- 
justment for  all  these  things.  They  quote  with 
immense  approval  certain  historic  sentences  and 
certain  striking  illustrations. 

They  repeat:  "The  way  to  resume  is  to  re- 
sume," as  if  that  covered  it.  Why  the  process  of 
resumption  was  one  of  the  most  difficult,  compli- 
cated, detailed  and  practical  processes  that  the 
Republic  ever  had  to  deal  with  in  its  management 
of  its  finances.  "  The  way  to  be  one  is  to  be  one. 
Surely !  And  the  way  to  be  one  is  a  matter  that 
involves  all  the  good  sense,  all  the  patience,  all 
the  wisdom  and  all  the  fine  talking  back  and  forth, 
what  men  in  a  worthy  way  would  call  "  ironing 
out  the  difficulties." 

It  involves  all  of  that  and  until  you  find  a  way 
through  all  of  these  difficulties,  you  have  not  in- 
vented a  satisfactory  method.  Now  just  to  show 
you  what  I  have  in  my  mind  on  this  point  I  am 


58      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

going  to  read  you  a  word.  One  way  to  find  the 
obstacles  Is  to  examine  any  plan  that  has  been  sub- 
mitted for  the  outcome  that  we  seek. 

Here  Is  the  Appendix  to  the  Lambeth  Quadri- 
lateral, and  then  the  first  Interim  statement  touch- 
ing this  matter  made  by  the  Joint  Committee  of 
the  Anglicans  and  Non-Conformists. 

First,  there  is  a  fine  statement  of  agreement  of 
matters  of  faith.  It  Is  a  beautiful  statement, 
and  then  there  is  a  beautiful  statement  of  agree- 
ment on  matters  relating  to  order. 

Then  this,  solemnly  signed  by  half  a  dozen  of 
the  leading  names  of  Great  Britain:  "  a  statement 
of  the  differences  in  relation  to  matters  of  order 
which  require  further  study  and  discussion." 

*'  Fidelity  to  our  convictions  and  sincerity  in 
their  expression  compel  us  to  recognize  that  there 
still  remain  differences  In  respect  of  these  matters. 

"  (i)  As  regards  the  nature  of  this  visible  so- 
ciety, how  far  it  Involves  uniformity  or  allows 
variety  In  polity,  creed,  and  worship. 

"  (2)  As  regards  the  Sacrament  —  the  condi- 
tions, objective  and  subjective,  in  their  ministra- 
tion and  reception  and  on  which  their  validity 
depends. 

"(3)  As  regards  the  ministry- — whether  it 
derives  Its  authority  through  an  Episcopal  or 
Presbyterian  succession  or  through  the  unity  of 
believers  or  by  a  combination  of  those." 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  59 

Now  you  see  at  a  glance  that  this  purely  practi- 
cal question  runs  into  the  creed,  poHty,  orders, 
sacraments  and  ministry.  It  Is  a  question  that 
just  cannot  be  dismissed  and  waved  aside.  Nor 
let  me  say  do  we  gain  anything  by  regarding  these 
matters  and  the  emphasis  upon  them,  as  trifling 
and  unimportant. 

These  convictions  upon  which  the  Churches 
have  been  built  are  convictions  that  have  not  been 
lightly  arrived  at.  They  are  convictions  that 
have  not  been  adopted  in  any  trifling  spirit. 
When  a  great  body  looks  upon  a  special  feature 
of  its  practice  as  commanded  and  enjoined  by  the 
New  Testament  and  by  the  example  of  Jesus 
Christ  himself,  no  matter  how  far  we  may  be 
from  agreement  with  them  in  this  conviction, 
every  true  man  and  woman  will  respect  their  con- 
viction as  a  conviction  and  not  ask  them  lightly 
to  wave  it  aside. 

And  the  same  thing  is  true  with  reference  to 
other  matters.  I  am  trying  to  say  that  there  is  a 
real  obstacle  that  Hes  here,  that  lies  in  every  prac- 
tical plan  for  Christian  Unity  that  has  ever  been 
proposed. 

The  hopeful  thing  is  that  in  spite  of  these 
recognized  dlflUculties  and  obstacles  earnest  men 
meet  together  with  increasing  regard  for  one  an- 
other, with  an  Increasing  confidence  in  one  an- 
other and  with  an  increasing  desire  for  closer  fel- 


6o     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

lowship,  with  Increasingly  living  approach  to  one 
another  for  the  sake  of  the  common  end. 

Now,  finally/  I  name  a  sixth  obstacle,  knowing 
that  there  can  be   other  six  just  as  striking  as 
these.     This  obstacle  is  due  to  the  difficulty  of 
reversing  a  historical  process.     It  is  not  easy  to 
reverse  a  historical  process.     I  say  again,  using 
the  illustration  that  I  used  earlier,  that  a  part  of 
the  difficulty  that  we  are  finding  In  the  effort  to 
reach  Unity  between  the  two  large  branches  of 
Methodism  in  this  country,  Is  due  to  the  difficulty 
of  reversing  the  historical  processes.     And  when 
great  bodies  look  back  over  their  history  and  see 
how  they  came  to  be,  when  the  Presbyterians  con- 
sider how  Presbyterlanism  made  Its  mighty  decla- 
ration In  England,  for  example,  and  when  other 
bodies  consider  how  they  happened  to  be  histori- 
cally, and  start  to  reverse  even  ignore  the  histori- 
cal processes  that  have  led  up  to  this  hour,  they 
find  obstacles  that  are  not  easy  to  overcome.     All 
that  Is  serious.     No  part  of  it  is  quite  so  serious 
I  think  as  the  spectacle   of  a  body  that  had  a 
noble  motive  In  its  historical  origin  that  is  con- 
tinuing to  live  upon  a  motive  out  of  which  the 
life  has  passed. 

Now  may  I  say  this  final  word.  I  have  named 
these  half  dozen  obstacles.  I  have  not  named 
them  at  all  as  though  In  my  judgment  they  could 
not  be  overcome.     It  does  not  quite  constitute  a 


OBSTACLES  IN  THE  WAY  6i 

part  of  the  discussion  that  I  have  accepted  with 
its  limitations  for  to-day,  for  me  to  add  this  word, 
but  I  could  not  quite  leave  the  matter  in  this  fash- 
ion as  though  for  one  instant  I  regarded  it  as  im- 
possible for  Christ's  Churches  to  be  Christ's 
Church,  possibly,  visibly  as  well  as  really. 

We  shall  find  a  better  way.  We  shall  find  the 
way,  the  better  method.  We  shall  find  the  ade- 
quate motive.  Increasingly  we  will  put  into 
Christ's  hands  the  kind  of  Body  he  can  use  in 
the  dismembered  and  broken  world.  For  the 
only  body  as  it  seems  to  me  that  can  bring  peace 
and  unity  to  a  distracted  and  broken  and  dis- 
membered world  is  that  Body  through  which 
Christ  utters  himself  in  the  world,  that  Body 
through  which  Christ  works  by  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
the  world,  that  Body  that  is  set  to  proclaim  his 
message,  that  Body  that  has  his  redemptive  pas- 
sion and  purpose,  that  Body  which  if  it  continue  to 
be  distracted  and  fevered  and  broken  will 
be  powerless  in  a  distracted  and  fevered  and 
broken  world. 

It  is  because  of  the  passion  of  Christ  for  a  Body 
that  he  can  use  that  the  subject  is  of  such  impor- 
tance. It  is  because  Christ  is  in  his  Church  and 
in  his  Churches  that  the  obstacles  to  Christ's  pur- 
pose can  be  overcome. 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD 

By  Mr.  Robert  E.  Speer,  D.D. 

introduction 

Any  words  of  introduction  that  should  attempt 
to  touch  upon  the  Important  and  significant  theme 
to  which  we  are  going  to  Hsten  this  afternoon, 
could  only,  I  am  sure,  by  their  weakness,  have  the 
advantage  of  contrast  to  the  words  to  which  we 
shall  listen.  It  Is,  of  course,  a  commonplace  utter- 
ance to  those  who  are  Informed  that  foreign  mis- 
sions have  not  been  an  expense  to  the  Church  but 
by  their  reactions  and  their  compensations  they 
have  brought  back  to  the  churches  at  home  far 
more  than  has  been  expended  upon  them.  This 
is  true  undoubtedly  In  the  realm  of  cooperation, 
federation  and  unity.  Indeed,  I  think  it  does 
not  go  beyond  the  truth  to  say  that  In  a  large 
measure,  the  work  of  cooperation  and  federation 
and  unity  at  home  Is,  in  a  large  measure,  a  con- 
tribution to  us  from  the  foreign  mission  fields, 
wherein  such  earnestness  and  seriousness  had  be- 
gun before  our  churches  at  home  had  taken  It 
seriously  and  earnestly.  The  speaker  who  speaks 
to  us  this  afternoon  has  not  only  been,  during  the 
period  of  the  War,  the  Chairman  of  the  General 

62 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         63 

Wartime  Commission  of  the  Churches,  instituted 
by  the  Federal  Council  of  Churches,  but  he  had 
an  opportunity  which  he  fulfilled  in  such  a  large 
measure,  of  leading  everywhere  our  whole  move- 
ment for  federation  and  cooperation,  so  that  at 
the  present  time  we  stand  on  a  vantage  ground 
which  we  did  not  have  before  the  War,  largely  due 
to  the  effectiveenss  and  wisdom  of  his  leadership. 
I  take  great  pleasure  in  presenting  Dr.  Speer, 
who  will  speak  to  us  on  the  subject  of  "  Unity  in 
the  Mission  Field,"  this  afternoon. 

Nowhere  in  the  whole  field  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship and  service  have  there  been  larger  attain- 
ments of  the  spirit  of  cooperation  and  unity  or 
larger  embodiments  of  that  spirit  in  actual  en- 
deavor than  in  the  field  of  foreign  missions. 
There  are  obvious  considerations  why  this  should 
be  so.  In  the  first  place  the  magnitude  and  the 
urgency  of  the  foreign  mission  task  have  de- 
manded such  use  of  our  forces  and  our  resources 
as  would  contribute  most  to  the  accompHshment 
of  that  undertaking.  The  evangehzatlon  of  a 
thousand  million  men  and  women,  that  is,  the 
communication  of  spiritual  truth,  the  most  diffi- 
cult of  all  truth  to  communicate,  to  two-thirds  of 
the  human  race,  and  not  the  communication  of 
that  truth  alone;  but  the  persuasion  of  men  to 
bring  their  characters  under  its  obedience,  and  the 


64      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

pervasion  of  the  whole  life  of  mankind  by  the 
spirit  and  principles  of  the  Christian  faith,  to  do 
this  not  under  one  uniform  set  of  conditions  but  in 
many  climates,  trying  and  difficult,  in  many  lan- 
guages, some  of  which  contain  no  words  in  which 
these  truths  can  be  expressed,  in  which  the  vocab- 
ulary of  the  Gospel  has  to  be  created, —  a  task  as 
great  and  difficult  as  this  is  no  task  to  justify  waste 
or  duplication.  As  the  late  Bishop  of  London, 
said  to  my  friend.  Canon  Gairdner,  this  undertak- 
ing is  too  colossal  for  any  one  branch  of  Christ's 
Church  to  think  of  undertaking  alone.  And  even 
if  many  generations  might  wait  for  one  branch  of 
the  Church  to  attain  this  task,  the  task  will  not 
wait  for  those  many  generations.  These  people 
are  here  now  and  they  are  entitled  to  know  this 
truth  and  to  be  offered  the  faith  and  knowledge 
of  the  Lord.  Great  forces  moreover,  are  moving 
all  over  the  world  to-day  that  will  not  delay  for 
their  die  and  stamp.  The  urgency  of  this  task 
combined  with  the  difficulty  of  it  enjoin  the  co- 
operation and  unity  of  all  the  forces  engaged  in  it. 
In  the  second  place  the  elementary  needs  of  the 
non-Christian  people  call  for  what  Is  fundamental 
and  essential  and  primary  in  our  Christian  Gospel. 
The  great  evils  of  the  world  are  impurity  and 
inequality  and  hopelessness.  Men  do  not  know 
the  character  of  God  and  therefore  they  do  not 
know  the  Christian  ideal  of  purity.     Men  do  not 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         65 

know  the  love  of  God  and  therefore  they  have  not 
entered  Into  the  Christian  experience  of  Brother- 
hood. Men  do  not  know  the  Hfe  of  God  and 
therefore  they  are  hopeless  regarding  the  present 
and  the  future  alike.  And  these  three  needs,  the 
life  and  the  love  and  the  truth  of  God,  these  are 
not  the  points  on  which  we  differ  among  ourselves. 
These  great  fundamental  things  of  the  Christian 
world  are  things  on  which  we  speak  a  common 
message. 

In  the  third  place  the  slmphclty  of  the  mission- 
ary aim  Itself  makes  possible  and  enjoins  unity. 
The  aim  of  the  missionary  enterprise  is  the  nat- 
uralization of  Christianity,  in  the  national  Hfe  of 
all  the  peoples  to  whom  we  go.  It  is  not  the  ex^ 
tension  to  any  of  these  peoples  of  something  that 
has  not  itself  commanded  the  full  national  life  of 
our  peoples  of  the  West.  I  am  a  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  but  I  have  not  the  slightest 
zeal  to  have  the  Presbyterian  Church  extended 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  world. 
It  seems  to  me  of  far  more  importance  that  the 
Christians  of  Japan,  instead  of  allying  themselves, 
some  of  them  with  the  Presbyterian  and  some  of 
them  with  the  Methodist  Church  of  America, 
rather  should  bind  themselves  together  m  one 
Christian  Church  of  Japan.  It  may  very  well  be 
that  when  these  Christian  Churches  have  once 
been  set  up  they  will  divide.     Nobody  can  guar- 


66      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

antee  their  perpetual  unity,  but  if  they  divide  they 
will  divide  on  issues  of  reality.  They  will  not  be 
perpetuating  in  these  far  off  lands,  the  memory  of 
divisions  which  have  no  rootage  in  their  past 
history  or  in  their  national  temper  and  character. 
In  the  fourth  place  the  very  occidental  charac- 
ter of  our  divisions  makes  it  necessary  to  transport 
them  to  other  lands.  Our  separations  here  have 
their  history  and  their  traditions,  that  are  very 
dear  to  us  and  we  do  well,  perhaps,  to  cherish 
them  and  to  let  them  go  slowly.  But  it  is  better, 
sooner  or  later,  to  let  them  go  in  the  interest  of 
something  far  richer  and  greater  than  they. 
Even  so  they  belong  to  Western  life.  They  do 
not  belong  to  the  life  of  the  people  of  Africa  or 
the  people  of  Asia.  I  remember  reading  some 
time  ago  in  a  Methodist  magazine  published  in 
China  in  the  city  of  Shanghai,  of  a  lament  of  some 
Methodist  missionary  that  there  was  not  a  single 
volume  of  Methodist  theology  published  in  the 
Chinese  language  which  was  not  deeply  tinctured 
with  Calvinism.  When  I  read  that,  I  was  pleased 
and  I  hoped  that  there  was  no  volume  of  Presby- 
terian theology  which  was  not  tinctured  also  with 
Arminianism.  These  are  not  Oriental  names. 
John  Calvin  and  Arminius  and  John  Crosby  and 
the  rest  have  their  place  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tianity. Whatever  has  been  learned  from  the 
past  ought  to  be  handed  down  to  the  Churches 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         67 

that  we  are  fostering  in  other  lands  but  it  ought 
not  to  divide  them. 

In  the  fifth  place,  one  knows  that  the  great 
body  of  our  fundamental  agreements  furnishes  a 
basis  on  which  we  can  unite  in  the  enterprise  of 
the  evangelization  of  the  world.  What  we  call 
the  Apostles'  Creed  is  the  common  possession  of 
us  all.  We  all  believe  in  the  Father  Almighty, 
the  Maker  of  Heaven  and  Earth.  We  all  beHeve 
in  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  Son,  our  Lord.  We 
all  beHeve  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  in  the  one  Bible,  the 
one  baptism,  in  one  faith  and  in  one  salvation. 
We  stand  here  on  ground  that  represents  the  great 
central  body  of  our  Christian  conviction  adequate 
surely  on  which  to  build  unitedly  in  these  great 
areas  of  the  non-Christian  world. 

I  might  add  to  these  five  considerations  of  which 
I  have  been  speaking,  all  of  which  justify  the 
greatest  possible  measure  of  cooperation  and 
unity  in  our  undertaking  to  evangelize  the  non- 
Christian  world.  But  a  second  question  lies 
just  beyond  this.  What  is  the  degree  and  meas- 
ure and  kind  of  Christian  Cooperation  and  Unity 
for  which  these  considerations  call?  They  call, 
obviously,  in  the  first  place  for  that  measure  of 
cooperation  and  unity  which  will  render  impossible 
all  rivalry  and  waste.  Because  all  rivalry  is  dis- 
loyalty to  Christ  and  all  waste  is  disloyalty  to  the 
world.     Rivalry   and    friction    are    disloyalty   to 


68      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

Christ  because  they  argue  a  different  spirit,  infe- 
rior to  his  spirit  of  brotherhood  and  trust  and 
love.  And  all  waste  is  disloyalty  to  the  world 
because  it  diminishes  the  extent  to  which  the 
gospel  could  be  spread,  if  it  were  not  for  waste 
and  duplication  and  over-lapping.  Obviously 
that  measure  of  unity  and  cooperation  is  de- 
manded which  will  prevent  all  waste  and  friction 
in  this  task. 

In  the  second  place,  something  more  than  that 
is  demanded.  That  kind  of  Unity  is  called  for 
which  will  not  only  prevent  waste  and  friction  but 
which  will  secure,  in  addition,  cooperation  and 
united  action.  It  is  not  enough  to  say  one  to 
another:  "Hands  off."  We  need  to  say  one  to 
another,  "  Hands  together."  It  is  not  enough 
for  us  to  agree  to  differ.  That  kind  of  agree- 
ment does  not  fulfill  all  that  the  Christian  spirit 
requires.  We  must  agree  not  only  to  differ  but 
to  cooperate  and  to  bend  our  energies  unitedly  to 
a  great  task  too  big  for  all  of  us,  vastly  too  big 
for  any  one  of  us  to  try  to  undertake  alone. 

And  not  only  must  our  Unity  be  these  two 
things  —  a  Unity  that  prevents  all  waste  and  fric- 
tion, a  Unity  that  secures  cooperation  efficiently, 
but  it  must  be  a  Unity  that  will  express  funda- 
mentally those  spiritual  values  that  we  are  trying 
to  carry  to  the  world.  I  believe  myself  in  the 
kind  of  Unity  for  which  our  Lord  prayed,  as  the 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         69 

kind  of  Christian  Unity  needed  in  our  approach 
to  the  non-Christian  world.  Our  Lord  prayed: 
"  That  they  may  be  one  as  Thou  and  I  art  One." 
I  hear  sometimes  that  what  we  need  is  Unity  and 
agreement  that  binds  brothers  together  in  a  fam- 
ily. That  would  be  a  great  attainment  but  our 
Lord  prayed  for  something  far  better  than  that. 
He  did  not  pray  that  we  might  be  one  as  two 
brothers  are  one;  he  did  not  pray  that  we  might 
be  united  in  fraternal  agreement  and  cooperation 
but  prayed  that  we  might  be  One  as  "  Thou  and  I 
art  One,"  "  That  they  also  may  be  One  In  Us." 
The  Unity  of  the  God-head  was  his  Ideal. 

And  I  believe  in  this  not  only  because  that  kind 
of  Unity  was  the  one  for  which  our  Lord  prayed 
but  because  It  Is  a  condition  of  our  adequate  ap- 
peal to  the  non-Christian  world.  On  no  divisions 
of  the  Christian  world  or  the  Christian  Church 
shall  we  convince  the  world  of  the  truth  of  our 
message.  Our  Lord  made  his  prayer  for  Unity 
In  order  that  the  world  might  believe  that  the 
Father  had  sent  him,  and  that  there  was  salva- 
tion in  him  for  all  mankind.  And  until  we  have  a 
Oneness  like  that,  our  gospel  will  never  have  the 
fullness  of  that  divine  power  which  our  Lord  Him- 
self said  it  would  have  only  when  at  last  His 
people  had  arrived  at  a  Unity  perfected  into  One 
as  He  and  His  Father  were  one. 

I  have  spoken  first  of  the  considerations  that 


70      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

make  It  necessary  that  we  should  achieve  Coopera- 
tion and  Unity  on  the  foreign  mission  field.  I 
have  spoken  secondly  of  the  kind  of  Coopera- 
tion and  Unity  for  which  It  seems  to  me  these  con- 
siderations call. 

I  wish  to  speak  of  the  measure  In  which  Co- 
operation and  Unity  have  been  already  achieved  In 
the  foreign  missionary  field,  for  there,  more  than 
In  any  other  field  of  Christian  endeavor  and  fel- 
lowship, have  we  made  progress  toward  these 
goals.  In  the  first  place  we  have  dispensed  with 
the  names  that  help  to  keep  us  asunder  In  the 
West.  God  be  praised  many  of  these  names  are 
Incapable  of  translation  Into  the  languages  of  the 
non-Chrlstlan  world.  You  cannot  translate  Pres- 
byterian or  Methodist  or  Protestant-Episcopal 
Into  Chinese.  There  are  very  few  languages  In 
the  world  In  which  you  can  find  any  terms  that  by 
any  stretch  of  the  Imagination  can  be  made  the 
equivalent  of  these.  Missionaries  accordingly 
have  devised  terms  and  names  that  fit  one  body  of 
Christians  just  as  well  as  they  fit  any  other  body 
of  Christians.  And  we  have  not  only  taken  the 
names  off  our  denominational  organizations  there 
but  we  have  taken  them  off  many  forms  of  our 
effort.  We  have  established  schools  and  colleges 
and  most  of  them  bear  no  denominational  name. 
They  may  bear  the  name  of  some  Christian  char- 
acter but  they  very  seldom  bear  any  denomina- 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         71 

tlonal  name.  We  are  doing  our  work  In  the  great 
non-Christian  field  under  the  Christian  name 
alone.  There  are  fields  like  the  Philippines  where 
almost  all  of  the  Christian  Churches  came  to- 
gether and  where  they  agreed  on  one  single  name 
by  which  they  would  call  all  of  their  organizations, 
the  Church  of  Christ,  perhaps,  and  then  paren- 
thetically at  the  end  they  would  put  In  Presby- 
terian or  Methodist.  But  the  parenthesis  has 
been  happily  dropping  out  here  and  there  and  only 
the  Christian  name  stands  out  to  view.  We  have 
carried  the  gospel  of  Christ  and  the  Church  of 
Christ  out  Into  the  non-Christian  world  and  a 
great  many  of  those  names  we  have  left  behind  and 
having  left  the  names  behind,  It  has  been  easier 
to  leave  some  of  the  things  which  the  names  con- 
note behind  and  by  which  we  are  held  apart. 

In  the  second  place.  In  the  foreign  mission  field 
they  have  adopted  the  policy  of  wise  distribution 
of  the  forces  that  were  available  for  the  mission- 
ary work.  Men  have  seen  the  absurdity  and 
wrong  of  crowding  little  groups  of  Christian 
workers  into  one  single  section  while  great  areas 
went  absolutely  uncared  for.  And  wise  and  sen- 
sible men,  in  whom  the  Christian  spirit  worked, 
have  begun  to  apportion  this  task  among  them- 
selves. The  underlying  principle  was  expressed 
In  one  of  the  deliverances  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, not  long  ago,  In  the  Lambeth  Conference  of 


72      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

1887:  "That  in  the  foreign  mission  field  of  the 
Church's  work  where  signal  spiritual  blessings 
have  attended  the  labor  of  Christian  missionaries 
not  connected  with  the  Anglican  community  a 
special  obhgation  has  arisen  to  avoid,  as  far  as 
possible  without  compromise  of  principle,  what- 
ever tends  to  prevent  the  due  growth  and  mani- 
festation of  that  '  Unity  of  the  Spirit,'  which 
should  ever  mark  the  Church  of  Christ."  And 
there  are  very  few  missionaries  now,  who  are  not 
of  the  same  mind  with  Alexander  Duff,  who  said 
that  he  would  as  soon  leap  into  the  Ganges  as 
take  one  step  to  entice  a  Christian  believer  away 
from  another  Christian  body  or  to  do  work  that 
fell  in  the  natural  sphere  and  was  the  duty  of 
any  other  Christian  organization. 

Here  in  this  city  long  years  ago,  the  principle 
was  laid  down  on  the  occasion  of  Alexander 
Duff's  visit,  long  since  forgotten,  but  living  in  the 
memory  for  generations  of  those  who  heard  him. 
I  have  talked  with  old  men,  long  since  dead,  who 
attended  that  meeting  held  on  the  occasion  of 
Alexander  Duff's  visit  and  who  voted  for  the 
resolutions  that  were  adopted  then: 

"  Resolved,  That  considering  the  vast  extent 
of  the  yet  unevangelized  world  of  heathenism, 
and  the  limited  means  of  evangelization  at  the 
disposal  of  the  existing  evangelical  churches  or 
societies,  it  would  be  very  desirable  that  with  the 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD        73 

exception  of  great  centers,  such  as  the  capitals  of 
powerful  kingdoms,  an  efficient  pre-occupancy  of 
any  particular  portion  of  the  heathen  field  by  any 
evangelical  church  or  society,  should  be  respected 
by  others  and  left  in  their  undisturbed  possession.'^ 

It  was  in  accordance  with  these  principles  that 
the  Mexico  missionaries  some  years  ago  after  the 
revolution  decided  not  to  go  back  to  their  old 
methods  but  that  they  would  see  that  the  whole 
country  was  apportioned  so  that  great  areas  were 
no  longer  neglected  as  they  had  been  by  the  con- 
gesting of  forces  in  certain  areas  and  leaving 
others  untouched.  And  now  a  map  of  Mexico 
may  be  presented  showing  that  whole  country 
portioned  out,  not  with  the  idea  of  exclusion  but 
on  the  principle  of  taking  care  of  the  whole  task 
that  must  be  done,  and  with  the  exception  of  two 
Christian  bodies,  which  retain  still  their  claim  of 
right  to  leap  over  all  these  boundaries  and  go 
anywhere,  all  the  rest  of  the  Christian  organiza- 
tions are  now  doing  their  best  to  see  that  the 
whole  of  Mexico  is  properly  taken  care  of.  That 
is  the  second  great  achievement  in  the  foreign  mis- 
sion field. 

In  the  third  place,  the  foreign  mission  work  has 
led  all  other  Christian  activities  in  the  way  it  has 
developed  confidence  and  cooperation  among  all 
the  forces  engaged  in  it.  Here  in  New  York 
City,  we  began  thirty  years  ago  an  annual  confer- 


74      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

ence  of  all  the  foreign  missionary  boards  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  It  has  been  held 
annually  ever  since,  and  it  has  enabled  the  mis- 
sionary agencies  in  the  United  States  and  Canada 
to  approach  their  task  with  a  common  body  of 
principles  and  with  an  almost  common  body  of 
resources.  In  almost  every  mission  field  now 
agencies  of  the  same  kind  have  been  developed, 
agencies  of  cooperation  and  confidence.  In  India 
the  Anglican  Church  has  been  foremost  in  the 
great  movement  that  has  correlated  the  forces  of 
India.  And  all  of  these  bodies,  except  the  Roman 
communion,  are  correlating  their  purposes  and  lay- 
ing out  their  plans  not  in  isolation  but  in  common 
conference  and  brotherly  accord. 

In  the  fourth  place,  there  has  been  in  the  mis- 
sion field  for  a  hundred  years  now  such  a  volume 
of  united  prayer  ascending  from  men  and  women 
as  has  arisen  from  no  other  section  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  What  we  call  the  Week  of  Prayer, 
long  since  diverted  to  other  purposes,  sprang  out 
of  the  missions  in  India,  and  was  designed  by 
these  missions  to  rally  the  whole  Christian  Church 
to  pray  for  the  evangeHzation  of  the  non-Chris- 
tian world.  To-day  I  will  venture  to  assert  there 
are  more  foreign  missionaries  united  in  their 
prayer  than  any  other  class  of  Christians  in  the 
world. 

In  the  fifth  place,  there  have  been  achievements 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD        75 

In  actual  Unity  which  have  far  transcended  any- 
thing that  we  have  won  as  yet  in  any  other  areas 
of  the  Church's  service.  We  see  it  in  the  united 
institutions.  I  could  name  scores  of  union  col- 
leges and  theological  seminaries  and  hospitals  and 
institutions  of  every  kind.  The  day  has  gone  by 
when  any  separate  communion  undertakes  any 
longer  to  build  up  alone  a  great  educational  in- 
stitution of  higher  learning  on  the  mission  field. 
We  have  realized  that  there  is  nothing  in  truth 
that  can  be  sectarian,  that  the  great  body  of  truth 
is  common  truth  and  that  we  should  unite  in 
undertaking  higher  educational  work.  In  build- 
ing a  missionary  university  from  two  to  ten  dif- 
ferent organizations  will  often  unite.  Further 
all  the  medical  missionaries  in  China  have  gath- 
ered in  one  medical  association,  and  all  the 
missionaries  in  educational  work  gathered  in  one 
educational  association.  And  we  have  gone 
far  beyond  this.  One  hears  the  question 
raised  now  and  then  as  to  whether  our  de- 
nominational personalities  are  ever  to  be  merged 
with  others.  It  is  being  done  all  over  the  world 
to-day.  There  is  scarcely  a  mission  field  where 
there  is  not  an  example  of  this.  Denominations 
separate  in  the  West  are  united  in  the  East.  In 
the  East,  in  Japan,  all  the  Episcopal  Churches 
have  united,  Hkewise  the  Methodist,  and  more 
than  thirty  years  ago,  all  the  Presbyterian  and 


76      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

Reformed  bodies,  seven  of  them,  still  apart  in 
the  United  States,  united  into  one  body.  In 
China  to-day  the  Presbyterian  and  the  Reformed 
Churches  are  one,  and  the  Congregationalists  are 
uniting  with  them,  no  matter  what  nation  they 
came  from.  All  over  the  world  we  are  witness- 
ing the  actual  melting  together  of  denominations. 
The  missionaries  are  not  afraid  to  put  their  ideals 
into  words.  Here  Is  the  resolution  of  the  great 
Missionary  Conference  of  Japan  In  1900,  adopted 
by  the  missionaries  of  all  denominations  gathered 
there.  "  This  Conference  of  Missionaries,  as- 
sembled in  the  City  of  Tokyo,  proclaims  its  belief 
that  all  those  who  are  one  with  Christ  by  faith 
are  one  body;  and  It  calls  upon  all  those  who  love 
the  Lord  Jesus  and  His  Church  in  sincerity  and 
truth,  to  pray  and  to  labor  for  the  full  realization 
of  such  a  corporate  oneness  as  the  Master  Him- 
self prayed  for  on  that  night  In  which  He  was 
betrayed."  Here  is  the  finding  of  the  Centenary 
Conference  in  Shanghai.  "  That  this  Conference 
unanimously  holds  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  as  the  supreme  standard  of 
faith  and  practice  and  holds  firmly  the  primitive 
apostolic  faith.  Further',  while  acknowledging 
the  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the  Nicene  Creed  as  sub- 
stantially expressing  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
the  Christian  faith,  the  Conference  does  not  adopt 
any  creed  as  a  basis  of  Church  Unity,  and  leaves 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         77 

confessional  questions  for  further  consideration; 
yet,  in  view  of  our  knowledge  of  each  other's  doc- 
trinal symbols,  history,  work,  and  character,  we 
gladly  recognize  ourselves  as  already  one  body  In 
Christ,  teaching  one  way  of  eternal  life,  and  call- 
ing men  into  one  holy  fellowship;  and  as  one  In 
regard  to  the  great  body  of  doctrine  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith;  one  In  our  teaching  as  to  the  love  of 
God  the  Father,  God  the  Son,  and  God  the  Holy 
Ghost;  In  our  testimony  as  to  sin  and  salvation, 
and  our  homage  to  the  Divine  and  Holy  Re- 
deemer of  men;  one  in  our  call  to  the  purity  of 
the  Christian  life,  and  in  our  witness  to  the  splen- 
dors of  the  Christian  hope. 

"  We  frankly  recognize  that  we  differ  as  to 
methods  of  administration  and  church  govern- 
ment. But  we  unite  in  holding  that  these  differ- 
ences do  not  invalidate  the  assertion  of  our  real 
Unity  In  our  common  witness  to  the  Gospel  of  the 
grace  of  God. 

"  That  in  planting  the  Church  of  Christ  on 
Chinese  soil,  we  desire  only  to  plant  one  church 
under  the  sole  control  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
governed  by  the  Word  of  the  living  God  and  led 
by  His  guiding  Spirit.  While  freely  communi- 
cating to  this  church  the  knowledge  of  truth,  and 
the  rich  historical  experience  to  which  older 
churches  have  attained,  we  fully  recognize  the 
liberty  in  Christ  of  the  churches  In  China  planted 


78      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

by  means  of  the  missions  and  churches  which  we 
represent,  in  so  far  as  these  churches  are,  by 
maturity  of  Christian  character  and  experience, 
fitted  to  exercise  it ;  and  we  desire  to  commit  them 
in  faith  and  hope  to  the  continued  safe  keeping  of 
their  Lord,  when  the  time  shall  arrive,  which  we 
eagerly  anticipate,  when  they  shall  pass  beyond 
our  guidance  and  control." 

I  have  now  dealt  with  five  regards  in  which  the 
foreign  mission  work  has  gone  in  advance  of  us 
and  has  achieved  already  what  we  pray  and  long 
for  here  at  home.  And  experience  in  the  foreign 
mission  field  has  taught  us  certain  great  and 
urgent  lessons. 

For  one  thing  it  has  shown  us  the  possibility  of 
Cooperation  and  Unity.  We  ask  whether  this 
thing  can  be  done.  It  has  been  done  far  and 
wide  throughout  the  mission  field  to-day.  When 
we  ask  whether  certain  problems  can  be  solved 
our  answer  is  they  have  been  solved  and  they  have 
been  solved  under  greater  difficulties  than  we 
encounter  here.  Here  in  America  we  have  the 
Presbyterian  Church  split  into  two,  over  issues 
that  burst  forth  in  the  Civil  War.  We  have  not 
been  able  to  re-unite  those  two  sections  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church.  There  is  not  a  single  non- 
Christian  land  where  we  are  at  work  together 
where  they  are  not  united.  I  do  not  see  why  if 
Northern  and  Southern  Presbyterians  can  unite 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         79 

In  the  atmosphere  of  Heathenism  they  can't  unite 
in  a  Christian  land.  Not  only  have  we  been 
shown  the  possibiHty,  we  have  been  shown  the 
duty.  If  it  is  our  duty  to  draw  together  in  the 
face  of  these  problems  that  confront  us  in  the 
foreign  mission  field,  is  there  any  less  duty  before 
the  problems  that  confront  us  here  in  America? 
For  where  are  the  problems  of  the  Christian 
Church  more  urgent  than  here  in  our  own  land? 
Every  consideration  that  argues  for  Unity  in  India 
or  China  argues  for  Unity  here  in  America.  We 
have  no  small  portion  of  the  foreign  mission  prob- 
lem to  solve  right  here  on  this  Island,  and  if  Unity 
is  essential  to  its  solution  ten  thousand  miles  away 
Unity  is  essential  to  its  solution  here. 

And  not  only  do  foreign  missions  show  us  the 
possibility  and  duty  of  Unity  but  they  remind  us 
of  the  method.  They  show  us  for  one  thing,  the 
solidarity  of  a  common  task  and  a  great  danger. 
We  used  to  think  that  the  common  task  had  a 
great  cementing  power.  We  reahze  now  that 
there  Is  nothing  like  a  common  danger  to  combine 
men  together.  We  have  got  our  common  task 
still  just  as  great  as  we  had  it  four  or  five  years 
ago.  Only  the  shadow  of  Germany  has  gone  by. 
And  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  a  common  convic- 
tion cannot  do  what  a  common  peril  can.  But  we 
have  still  a  common  task  and  a  common  duty  and 
a   common   peril.     An   Idolatrous  world   Is   not 


8o      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

nearly  so  great  a  peril  as  a  world  that  has  thrown 
its  idols  away  and  believes  in  no  God  at  all.  We 
are  facing  a  vastly  more  perilous  world  than  the 
old  world  of  one  hundred  years  ago,  a  pagan 
world  with  its  old  evils  and  sicknesses,  all  its  own 
economic  problems  of  poverty  and  neglect,  with 
our  economic  problems  flung  in  upon  them.  Let 
any  one  go  out  and  listen  to  the  whir  of  the 
spindles  to-night  in  Osaka,  let  him  go  up  and  down 
those  long  rows  of  mills  in  Shanghai  and  hear  the 
thunder  of  the  great  looms;  and  go  in  and  look 
at  the  lives  being  fed  into  those  spindles  and 
woven  into  those  looms,  and  he  will  realize  that 
the  world  has  far  more  perils  and  burdens  to-day 
than  It  had  in  the  old  days  gone  by.  The  case 
that  Mr.  Lowes  Dickinson  made  out  for  the  an- 
cient Chinese  civilization  is  a  case  that  cannot  be 
laughed  away.  There  is  too  much  that  is  sad  and 
tragic  about  it.  We  have  got  all  that  problem 
in  front  of  us.  We  cannot  divide  in  the  face  of 
a  task  like  that  or  in  the  face  of  a  peril  so  great. 
And  not  only  have  we  been  shown  how  a  great 
task  and  peril  can  unite,  but  our  experience  has 
revealed  the  power  of  fellowship  in  serving,  to 
unite  men  in  spite  of  their  intellectual  disagree- 
ment and  their  divergent  temperaments.  After 
all,  one  wonders  whether  we  have  diagnosed  cor- 
rectly the  real  causes  of  our  continued  separation. 
One  wonders  whether  it  is  doctrine  or  faith  that 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD         8i 

divides,  or  whether,  after  all,  a  great  deal  more  of 
division  does  not  spring  from  property  and  tem- 
perament, and  that  if  only  we  could  deal  with 
property  and  temperament  we  could  not  take  care 
of  the  questions  of  polity  and  creed.  Human 
friendliness  is  a  great  unifier.  Bishop  Boone  used 
to  take  all  the  newcomers  In  Shanghai  into  his 
home.  There  were  times  when  many  denomina- 
tions of  missionary  slept  together  under  his  roof. 

And  foreign  missions  also  have  shown  the 
method  of  Unity  which  is  to  be  found  not  in  de- 
tailed comparison  but  on  the  principle  of  tran- 
scendence, a  larger  principle  than  any  that  con- 
trols us  now,  that  will  enable  us  to  see  things  in  a 
conspective  in  which  we  can  not  see  them  now. 

And  not  only  are  we  to-day  learning  from  for- 
eign missions  the  methods  by  which  Unity  can  be 
achieved  but  we  ought  to  learn  and  practice  these 
lessons  now.  Shall  not  the  horrors  of  the  discord 
and  the  alienation  and  the  disunity,  out  of  which 
we  have  not  emerged,  make  us  ashamed  of  our 
divergence?  The  one  great  need  of  the  world 
to-day  is  Unity.  The  central  principle  of  Chris- 
tianity is  Unity.  The  fundamental  element  of  all 
life  is  Unity.  How  can  we,  in  the  Christian 
Church,  obscure  or  qualify  that  principle  by  our 
divisions?  We  have  learned  the  peril  of  con- 
scientiousness. No  man  is  justified  in  any  course 
of  action  merely  because  he  can  conscientiously 


82      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

take  it.  Germany  was  just  as  conscientious  as  we. 
*'  The  day  will  come,"  said  our  Lord,  "  when 
those  who  will  kill  you  will  think  that  they  do 
service  unto  God."  Does  conscientious  murder 
make  a  man  innocent?  We  have  hidden  behind 
our  conscientiousness  too  long.  We  must  beware 
of  letting  conscientiousness  harden  us  to  the  risk 
of  missing  truth. 

And  to-day  as  never  before  Unity  is  of  such 
importance  as  to  demand  any  necessary  sacrifice, 
such  sacrifices  as  men  have  never  been  willing  to 
make  before.  And  I  set  foremost  among  those 
sacrifices  our  false  loyalty  to  the  past.  What 
is  loyalty  to  the  past?  Loyalty  to  the  past  does 
not  consist  in  trying  to  stay  within  it.  Loyalty  to 
the  past  consists  in  trying  to  rise  above  it.  The 
past  that  did  not  prepare  for  a  better  future  is  an 
unfulfilled  past.  Truth  that  is  truth  opens  the 
gates  to  larger  truth.  And  those  men  are  faithful 
to  what  lies  behind  them,  who  say  to  the  past,  "  I 
see  thy  meaning.  Thy  meaning  was  that  greater 
things  were  to  be  made  possible  by  thee  and  I  am 
loyal  to  thee  only  when  I  heed  thy  voice  and  go 
on  to  those  greater  and  richer  things."  True 
loyalty  does  not  consist  in  holding  fast  to  an  un- 
changed and  unchangeable  order  that  has  been. 
It  consists  in  standing  faithfully  upon  the  founda- 
tions that  have  been  laid  and  opening  ourselves  to 
all  the  new  light  and  truth  and  guidance  which 


UNITY  IN  THE  MISSION  FIELD        83 

God  Is  waiting  to  give  to  the  Church,  If,  like  the 
path  of  the  just,  the  Church  Is  not  a  stagnant  sta- 
tion but  a  golden  way  that  grows  brighter  and 
brighter  to  the  fullness  of  the  day  that  has  not 
yet  been,  but  that  may  yet  be. 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER 

By  the  Reverend  Henry  Sloane  Coffin,  D.D. 

introduction 

You  will  share  my  regret  that  the  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  was  hindered  from  having  the  privilege 
accorded  him  this  afternoon  by  a  severe  cold.  I 
regret  it  all  the  more  for  his  sake  and  for  yours 
because  he  shares  with  you  the  understanding  of 
the  supreme  importance  of  the  matter  that  brings 
you  together.  No  doubt  the  most  significant  and 
useful  means  for  helping  God's  people  to  keep 
away  from  further  sin  is  that  the  matter  of  Chris- 
tian Unity  might  be  talked  about,  that  people 
realize  the  horrible  loss  that  comes  to  humanity 
through  the  discord  of  the  Body  of  Christ. 

Public  opinion  must  be  formed  by  people  who 
can  discriminate  and  who  pray  to  God.  The 
public  opinion  of  the  Church  must  be  at  one,  in 
accord,  so  that  or  before  all  men  can  understand 
why  these  divisions  in  the  family  of  our  Father  in 
Heaven  are  only  expressions  of  our  self-will. 
Nor  will  men  be  able  to  find  a  means  by  which 
their  evil  may  be  overcome,  until  it  is  a  matter  of 
common  interest  among  God's  people. 

84 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  85 

Therefore,  I  can  think  of  nothing  more  valu- 
able for  the  community  at  large  than  such  a 
gathering  as  this  and  it  is  specially  timely  on 
account  of  the  conditions  in  which  we  are  living. 
Why  is  it  that  no  one  in  our  public  life  or  in 
economic  matters  seems  to  have  any  convictions 
any  more?  Why  is  it  that  self-interest  and  self- 
seeking  have  suddenly  come  to  have  the  appear- 
ance of  being  the  only  driving  powers  in  human 
relations?  Is  it  not  because  our  children  have 
been  left  without  any  other  help  than  their 
teacher's  influence  to  have  implanted  in  them  the 
living  principles  upon  which  human  liberty  must 
depend  for  its  survival?  Christianity,  the  knowl- 
edge and  fear  of  God,  must  go  back  again  among 
the  little  children  and  grow  with  them  in  their  life, 
compelling  their  thought,  before  we  can  have  a 
generation  who  like  our  fathers  rested  all  they 
had  in  the  institutions  that  they  builded  because 
they  knew  these  were  pleasing  to  God. 

For  our  nation's  sake,  it  is  well  for  such  a  meet- 
ing as  this  to  be  held  that  right  public  opinion  may 
be  established  among  us.  It  is  a  special  pleasure 
to  me  that  I  should  have  been  called  to  represent 
the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  on  the  day  when  the 
supreme  view  of  the  whole  matter  is  to  be  dis- 
cussed —  The  Mind  of  the  Master.  The  speaker 
you  need  not  have  introduced  to  you.  You  will 
follow  him  in  his  thought  and  when  we  separate  it 


86      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

win  be  with  renewed  and  more  clean-cut  convic- 
tions that  if  the  Mind  of  the  Master  can  drive  us, 
our  problem  will  be  quickly  solved.  I  have  the 
pleasure  of  introducing  to  you  to-day  Dr.  Henry 
Sloane  Coffin  who  will  speak  on  the  Mind  of  the 
Master. 

Bishop,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen:  It  is  a  great 
pleasure  to  speak  with  such  a  chairman  on  such 
a  theme  because  I  think  if  I  sat  down  with  the 
Bishop  and  listened  to  his  view  of  the  Church  he 
and  I  would  be  of  one  communion  within  fifteen 
minutes.  The  theme  assigned  to  me  to-day  is 
"The  Mind  of  the  Master."  It  suggests  first 
the  thought  concerning  his  Church  held  by  the 
Jesus  of  history  and  when  one  discusses  that  his- 
toric question  there  are  two  things  that  always 
must  be  borne  in  mind.  One  is  our  Lord's  rela- 
tion to  the  Jewish  Church.  Here  was  a  great 
historic  institution  in  which  he  was  born,  in  whose 
heritage  his  own  faith  had  its  origin,  by  whose 
worship  that  faith  was  developed  and  through 
whose  synagogues  he  found  the  readiest  outlet 
for  the  message  he  had  to  tell.  There  does  not 
seem  to  be  any  indication  that  Jesus  contemplated 
breaking  with  the  Jewish  Church  and  setting  up 
a  separate  institution.  He  gathered  about  him  a 
group  of  men  who  shaped  his  faith  and  his  pur- 
pose and  to  whom  he  opened  his  heart  and  mind 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  87 

and  whom  he  bound  himself  with  ties  of  peculiar 
loyalty.  A  group  consciousness  naturally  arose 
so  that  they  spoke  of  persons  "  of  us  "  and  "  not 
of  us."  And  to  that  little  group  on  the  eve  of 
his  Crucifixion  our  Lord  gave  the  symbolic  rite, 
a  symbol  of  their  fellowship,  fighting  fellowship, 
a  nourishing  fellowship  with  Him  and  with  one 
another  in  Him. 

But  even  after  his  ascension  that  group  did  not 
feel  that  they  had  been  set  apart  as  a  separate  in- 
stitution. They  worshiped  in  the  Jewish  tem- 
ple, kept  the  Jewish  feasts,  lived  as  Jews  with  the 
hope  of  winning  the  Jewish  Church  to  the  cause  of 
Jesus. 

The  second  consideration  that  must  always  be 
borne  in  mind  is  Jesus'  outlook  upon  the  future 
and  here  of  course  one  speaks  with  diffidence  in 
view  of  differences  of  opinion  amongst  scholars. 
But  it  seems  fairly  plain  that  in  the  earliest  narra- 
tives the  near  end  of  the  age  was  anticipated. 
The  Son  of  Man  was  to  return  in  power  and  to 
gather  in  a  day  upon  the  earth.  And  with  that 
on  the  horizon,  it  was  not  natural  that  our  Lord 
should  think  very  much  about  an  institution  which 
was  to  carry  on  his  work,  but  the  centuries  have 
rolled  by  and  the  catastrophe  which  the  early 
Church  looked  for,  the  catastrophic  ending  of  the 
world,  has  not  come  to  pass.  What  our  Lord 
did  was  not  to  found  an  institution  but  to  gather 


88      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

this  group  together,  to  fill  them  with  His  mind, 
to  breathe  upon  them  His  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  His 
Father,  the  living  God,  and  to  leave  them  bound 
in  the  Unity  of  the  Spirit  in  loyalty  to  Him- 
self. 

In  the  narrative  of  the  history  of  the  early 
Church  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  you  recall  that 
it  is  said  that  the  group  of  Christians,  not  yet 
called  Christians,  group  of  disciples  of  Jesus,  con- 
tinued steadfastly  in  the  Apostles'  teaching  and  in, 
not  as  our  version  renders  it  "  in  fellowship  "  be- 
cause the  best  text  in  the  Greek  has  a  definite 
article,  '*  the  fellowship  "  and  possibly  we  may 
say  that  the  earhest  name  given  to  the  Christian 
Church  was  "  The  Fellowship,"  and  all  that  it  re- 
corded concerning  the  life  in  Jerusalem  seems  de- 
signed to  accentuate  and  inspire  and  increase  that 
sense  of  fellowship.  Common  prayer,  common 
effort,  even  a  common  sharing  of  goods  so  that 
brotherhood  was  embodied  economically  as  well 
as  along  other  lines  and  then  in  the  symbolic 
rite  of  the  breaking  of  the  bread.  So  that  the 
four  evangels  seem  to  be  natural  in  the  line  that 
the  Master,  as  we  get  it  from  the  Synoptists  and 
in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  prays  on  the  eve  of  his 
departure:  "The  glory  which  Thou  hast  given 
Me,  I  have  given  them."  What  was  the  glory 
which  God  has  given  Him  ?     The  glory  of  service. 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  89 

devotion  to  others.  "  The  glory  Thou  hast  given 
Me,  I  have  given  them,  that  they  may  be  One  as 
we  are  One."  Fellowship,  the  main  idea  of  the 
Church,  "  The  Fellowship."  And  when  one  turns 
to  the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul  and  studies  the 
Apostle's  thought,  that  idea  of  fellowship  seems 
to  be  uppermost  in  his  mind.  You  recall  how  he 
protested  against  those  that  took  party  names 
saying:  "  I  am  of  Paul,"  "  I  am  of  Apollos,"  as 
that  tended  to  break  up  the  sense  of  corporate 
Oneness,  dividing  the  fellowship.  The  sins  which 
he  spoke  of  most  were  the  anti-social  sins,  envy, 
wrath,  mahce,  and  the  like,  the  whole  ideal  being 
the  ideal  of  fellowship.  And  he  went  further. 
There  was  always  a  danger  of  the  Jewish  section 
of  the  Church  holding  itself  aloof  from  the  Gen- 
tile section  of  the  Church  and  the  Apostle  was 
quick  to  see  how  some  practical  demonstration  of 
brotherhood  would  tend  to  bridge  that  chasm  and 
so  when  poverty  overtook  the  believers  in  Jeru- 
salem, he  took  that  great  contribution  from  the 
Gentile  people  and  sent  it  to  the  others.  And 
this  idea  of  fellowship  was  prominent  in  the 
teaching  which  he  gave  concerning  the  Lord's 
Supper.  "  The  cup  which  we  bless  is  it  not  a  fel- 
lowship of  the  blood  of  Christ,"  participation  in 
Christ  and  a  fellowship  with  one  another,  partici- 
pation in  the  redemptive  blood  of  Christ  shed  at 
Calvary?  "  The  bread  which  we  break  is  it  not  a 
fellowship  of  the  body  of  Christ?  "     And  one  of 


90      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

the  most  emphatic  commands  that  we  should  en- 
deavor to  keep  is  the  Unity  of  the  spirit  In  the 
bond  of  peace.  And  He  of  whom  we  are  speak- 
ing was  one  who  did  not  hesitate  to  say  and  He 
certainly  would  not  have  hesitated  to  say  It  in  this 
connection:  "  We  have  the  mind  of  Christ." 

This  is  a  glimpse  Into  the  past  but  a  glimpse 
into  the  past  with  a  view  to  the  present  institution 
to-day.  The  fortunate  thing  about  the  title 
which  has  been  assigned  me  to-day  is  that  it  is  not 
a  theme  which  belongs  only  to  the  past.  Jesus 
did  not  give  his  disciples  a  set  of  doctrines.  He 
gave  them  a  Spirit.  And  the  mind  of  Christ  is 
not  a  mind  of  one  who  lived  and  died  centuries 
ago  but  the  mind  of  our  great  contemporary. 
He  who  promised  to  be  with  his  people  always 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world  so  that  In  each 
generation  we  look  back  only  to  get  guidance  of 
the  historic  mind  and  apply  It  to  the  situation  in 
which  we  are  found  In  our  own  generation. 

There  are  four  factors  which  it  seems  to  me 
throw  a  good  deal  of  light  upon  the  actual  situa- 
tion of  the  hour.  The  first  we  may  call  scientific 
or  historic.  We  are  well  aware  that  now,  for  half 
a  century  and  more,  earnest  scholars  have  investi- 
gated the  Bible,  with  the  result  that  the  Church 
of  to-day  which  is  at  all  abreast  of  the  times 
looks  upon  the  Scriptures  with  a  different  view 
from  that  entertained  by  our  forefathers  fifty  or 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  91 

one  hundred  years  ago.  Not  that  we  prize  the 
Scriptures  less,  not  that  we  hear  less  authorita- 
tively the  voice  of  the  Lord  our  God  speaking 
from  it,  not  that  we  find  less  readily  the  provi- 
sions of  His  grace  for  our  souls  in  the  Bible,  but 
that  we  look  upon  the  written  word  from  a  dif- 
ferent angle.  It  used  to  be  assumed  that  the 
Bible  contained  the  law,  that  in  that  law,  by  taking 
a  brief  text  here  and  there,  one  might  construct 
the  creed  which  was  to  be  binding  upon  believers* 
thought  for  all  time;  that  by  a  similar  investiga- 
tion of  the  polity  of  the  Church  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, it  was  possible  to  construct  the  Constitution 
which  the  Spirit  of  God  had  laid  down  for  the 
Church  for  all  successive  generations.  To-day 
the  Bible  is  to  us  a  narrative  of  man's  life  with 
God.  The  inspiration  is  in  the  life  rather  than 
in  the  record  of  the  life.  God  is  to  be  found  In 
the  life  that  his  people  had  one  with  another  and 
with  Him  rather  than  In  a  certain  set  of  texts 
pieced  together.  As  a  matter  of  fact  scholars 
point  out  that  there  were  diversities  of  doctrine  in 
the  early  Church.  To  be  sure  all  looked  up  to 
God  as  their  Father,  all  bowed  with  adoring 
trust  to  Jesus  Christ  as  their  Lord  and  Savior, 
and  all  believed  in  the  Indwelling  Spirit  of  God 
as  their  Sanctlfier,  all  looked  upon  the  cross  of 
Christ  as  the  great  event  in  the  past  which  me- 
diated their  redemption  with  the  Lord  their  God. 


92      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

All  looked  forward  confidently  to  the  triumph  of 
Christ's  kingdom  and  to  their  own  endless  life  in 
the  City  of  God.     There  is  a  great  body  of  truth 
In  the  New  Testament  but  certainly  there  were 
diversities  of  expression  and  no  attempt  was  made 
to    fasten    upon   the    Church    a    uniform    creed. 
Again  with  regard  to  the  polity  a  scholar  like 
Long  points  out  that  a  number  of  the  forms  of  or- 
ganization of  the  day  seemed  to  influence   the 
forms  of  organization  that  we  find  in  their  organ- 
ization.    The  village  elder,  the  relationship  of  a 
Roman  patron  and  his  clients,  the  fraternities  or 
guilds  of  the  Roman  world,  the  custom  of  the  suc- 
cession of  the  next  of  kin  in  the  oriental  family  all 
suggest  why  James,  the  brother  of  our  Lord,  at- 
tained   the    position    of    eminence    given   him   in 
the    Church    of    Jerusalem.     These    and    other 
forms   seem   to   have   influenced  the    Church   of 
that   day  in   the    organization    of   their   groups. 
The   scholars   are   also  pointing  out   to   us,   and 
this  is  of  primary  importance,  that  it  is  nowhere 
said   in   the   New  Testament   that   a   particular 
form  adopted  by  the  believers  in  Philippi  or  by 
the  believers  in  Jerusalem,  was  adopted  by  them 
with  a  view  of  having  it   continually  practiced 
in  precisely  the    form   they  used    for   successive 
generations.     That  was  not  in  their  minds.     And 
there    is    no    statement   in    the    New   Testament 
which  binds  us  to-day  to  some  particular  form 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  93 

which  was  congruous  to  the  thought  and  customs 
of  that  day.  So  that  historical  research  does  a 
great  deal  to  clear  the  ground.  It  points  out  the 
continuity  of  life  that  we  share  with  the  past.  It 
emphasizes  the  fact  that  the  Church  has  always 
been  an  organism  rather  than  an  organization,  a 
growing  body  and  therefore  fixed  forms,  be  they 
forms  of  doctrine  or  be  they  forms  of  polity, 
are  not  to  be  expected.  A  distinguished  British 
thinker  has  said  that  the  one  immutable  factor  In 
our  institutions  is  their  mutability  and  that  is  true 
of  the  Church  of  Christ.  So  that  our  historical 
investigation  clears  the  ground.  It  is  not  the 
question  that  Presbyterians  and  EpiscopaHans 
used  to  debate  among  themselves  but  the  fact  that 
the  grounds  upon  which  those  controversies  were 
conducted  have  been  taken  from  under  our  feet. 
These  questions  are  no  longer  relative  in  view  of 
our  scientific  attitude  as  historians  toward  the 
Biblical  Scriptures.  And  that  is  a  significant  fac- 
tor to  be  borne  in  mind  when  one  seeks  the  Mind 
of  the  Master  for  our  day. 

The  second  factor  is  social.  The  Protestants 
emphasized  the  individual's  relation  to  God. 
That  we  do  not  like  to  surrender.  But  so  long  as 
religion  was  viewed  mainly  as  an  individual  affair 
with  his  God,  a  small  number  of  fellow  believers 
was  all  that  was  necessary  to  enlarge  a  Christian's 
life  and  to  stimulate  him  to  love  and  good  works. 


94      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

He  did  not  feel  himself  crippled  and  impoverished 
because  he  belonged  to  a  diminutive  sect. 

To-day  with  the  development  of  our  social  con- 
sciousness, that  thing  is  impossible.  To  begin 
with  we  recognize  that  whatever  religious  life  we 
possess  to-day  is  not  dropped  upon  us  as  a  bolt 
from  the  blue.  It  is  something  which  we  owe  to 
the  generations  before  us  and  so  we  emphasize 
continuity  with  the  past  as  our  fathers  did  not. 
We  feel  ourselves  in  a  true  sense,  no  matter  what 
label  may  be  attached  to  us  to-day,  we  feel  our- 
selves heirs  of  the  whole  Church  of  all  the  yester- 
days reaching  back  across  the  centuries  to  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  Himself.  And  we  emphasize 
that  fact.  We  owe  our  faith  to  that  succession 
of  believing  men  and  women  who  have  passed 
down  the  spirit  of  God  to  us. 

Again  we  feel  our  need  of  the  whole  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  to-day,  if  we  are  to  embody  in  our- 
selves a  rich,  full,  religious  experience.  We  do 
not  wish  to  cut  off  from  the  Spirit  of  God  any 
body  of  believers.  We  want  them  one  with  us 
and  ourselves  one  with  them  with  a  sense  of  cor- 
porate solidarity,  so  that  we  may  give  to  them 
whatever  good  comes  to  us  and  take  from  them 
whatever  good  God  has  bestowed  upon  them. 
We  feel  that  we  need  the  whole  Church  to-day 
for  our  life  with  God  and  we  feel  that  they  too 
need  us. 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  95 

And,  further,  a  diminutive  sect  will  not  accom- 
plish the  purposes  that  we  have  in  mind.  So  long 
as  Christians  view  the  main  purpose  of  life  as  a 
pilgrimage  from  the  city  of  destruction  to  the 
Celestial  City,  a  small  number  of  comrades  is 
enough.  But,  when  he  looks  out  upon  the  world 
and  believes  that  God  has  laid  upon  his  soul  the 
duty  of  Christianizing  a  New  York,  a  China,  a 
world,  then  this  task  is  obviously  impossible  for 
any  small  group.  It  would  be  out  of  the  question 
to  Presbyterianize  New  York  or  to  Episcopa- 
lianize  China.  We  simply  need  the  entire  force 
of  Jesus  Christ  linked  together  for  the  achieve- 
ment of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  is  our  aim 
to-day  and  that  realization  demands  a  fellowship, 
with  an  insistency  that  men  of  an  earlier  day  did 
not  feel. 

The  third  factor  we  may  call  experimental. 
For  a  number  of  years,  we  in  our  Protestant  com- 
munions  have  had  very  close  fellowship  in  vari- 
ous inter-denominational  agencies  in  the  common 
planning  of  our  missionary  enterprises  and  in  just 
such  meetings  as  we  are  engaged  in  this  afternoon. 
We  know  each  other  as  we  did  not  know  each 
other  before.  The  result  is  that  our  feehngs 
have  undergone  a  profound  change.  Further- 
more the  war,  with  the  pressure  it  exerted  upon 
us,  compelled  closer  unity.  We  have  had  experi- 
mentally to  live  together  and  we  have  discovered 


96      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

that  we  are  not  as  different  as  we  thought  each 
other.  I  have  just  come  from  a  week  of  special 
services  in  an  Episcopal  Church.  I  think  this 
is  the  fourth  or  fifth  time  I  have  spent  with  that 
Congregation,  worshiping  with  them  day  after 
day.  I  have  not  discovered  one  thing  that  was 
the  least  bit  different  from  the  method  to  which 
I  am  accustomed.  There  were  slight  differences 
in  form.  I  preach  in  a  black  robe  and  they 
preach  in  a  white  robe  and  other  things  trivial 
but  all  the  other  fundamental  things,  all  the  other 
fundamental  aspirations,  all  the  great  work  of  the 
Church,  was  identical.  We  must  recognize  that 
identity  to-day  underlying  our  superficial  and  ap- 
parent differences.  Further  when  you  come  to 
study  the  different  communions,  you  will  discover 
that  under  different  labels  you  have  the  same 
thing. 

Go  Into  a  Church  which  emphasizes  Independ- 
ence as  our  Baptist  brothers  do  and  you  discover 
some  man  exercising  the  same  authority  exercised 
by  a  diocesan  bishop.  He  may  not  have  the 
name  but  the  fact  Is  there.  We  have  men  exer- 
cising quite  extensive  powers  In  Churches  like  the 
Presbyterian.  That  fact  Is  not  the  Important 
thing.  The  fact  is  that  that  function  Is  filled  by 
a  certain  Individual  who  has  been  raised  up  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  under  certain  circumstances  for 
that  task. 


/ 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  97 

Or  take  two  communions  as  far  apart  as  the 
Roman  Catholic  and  the  Friends.  In  the  former, 
you  have  a  non-partlclpating  congregation,  sit- 
ting by  In  silence  while  a  dramatic  act  is  being 
performed  before  them.  In  the  Friends  you  have 
a  congregation  sitting  equally  silent,  with  no  ap- 
parent participation  and  although  the  dramatic 
action  Is  not  performed  before  their  eyes,  in  the 
quiet  the  most  momentous  spiritual  transactions 
are  perceived  by  the  eye  of  the  soul  so  that  those 
coming  forth  from  the  mass  and  those  coming 
forth  from  the  Friends'  meeting  will  have  experi- 
enced very  similar  forms  of  fellowship  with  the 
living  God  to  the  nourishment  and  refreshment 
and  inspiration  of  their  souls.  So  that  experi- 
mentally, as  we  live  together  and  work  together, 
we  discover  under  divers  labels  that  this  religious 
life  of  ours  is  so  alike  that  it  must  take  to  itself  a 
body  of  its  own,  which  shall  resemble  that  body 
as  it  expresses  Itself  in  some  other  communion. 

And  the  fourth  reason  we  may  label  practical. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  to-day  we  know  perfectly  well, 
those  of  us  who  are  the  leaders  in  our  Churches, 
that  when  we  come  before  an  audience  and  plead 
for  something,  that  the  denominational  appeal  is 
no  longer  persuasive,  to  plead  for  a  thing  from 
the  point  of  view  of  denominational  loyalty  is  no 
longer  the  convincing  appeal  that  it  was  twenty- 
five  or  fifty  years  ago.     We  have  always  to  say  to 


98      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

our  people :  "  This  is  a  part  of  the  great  com- 
mon task  before  us,"  before  they  rise  to  it  with 
any  enthusiasm. 

Further  practically  we  discover  that  in  our 
present  isolation  we  are  not  able  to  achieve  the 
ethical  ideals  which  as  Christians  we  wish  to 
achieve.  To  be  specific  take  the  question  of  mar- 
riage and  divorce.  Of  what  use  is  it  for  one 
communion  to  set  up  a  particular  standard  and 
strive  to  live  up  to  it  if  other  communions  in  the 
same  locality  are  not  attempting  to  make  that 
standard  authoritative  for  them?  A  couple  come 
to  you  and  you  refuse  to  marry  them  because  they 
do  not  come  up  to  the  particular  requirements  that 
your  communion  has  laid  down.  They  go  around 
the  corner  and  another  clergyman  marries  them. 
So  that  the  Church  to-day  cannot  hold  up  authori- 
tatively before  the  community  this  ethical  ideal  of 
the  home.  I  am  not  discussing  whether  one  or 
the  other  ideal  should  be  adopted.  I  am  merely 
pointing  out  the  fact  that  in  our  present  condition, 
you  cannot  make  any  one  of  these  ideals  recog- 
nized in  the  community,  because  certain  parts  of 
the  Church  snap  their  fingers  at  the  ideal  set  up 
by  some  other  part  of  the  Church.  And  when  we 
come  to  discuss  a  big  issue  of  the  day,  when  we 
come  to  discuss  international  agreement,  when  we 
come  to  discuss  economic  morality,  we  should  be 
able  to  hold  our  ideals  in  common  with  the  great 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER  99 

body  of  Christians  and  say:  "  By  these  ideals  we 
are  prepared  to  live  and  If  need  be,  die."  /^ 
I  think,  Bishop  Lloyd,  you  remember  that  great 
council  in  Edinburgh  in  1 910.  I  happened  to 
have  been  a  member  of  that  conference  called  to 
discuss  the  foreign  missionary  problem  throughout 
the  world.  And  in  the  dark  days  of  the  war,  I 
used  to  think:  "  Would  that  the  so-called  heathen 
for  whom  that  conference  was  held  could  rise  up 
and  bid  us  come  together  again  and  with  the  same 
prayer,  the  same  consecration,  settle  among  our- 
selves what  was  Christian  and  what  was  un- 
christian in  the  relationship  of  a  more  advanced 
nation  to  a  weaker  people;  what  was  Christian 
and  what  was  non-Christian  in  matters  of  national 
defense,  armaments  and  the  like;  what  was  Chris- 
tian and  what  was  non-Christian  in  regard  to  the 
control  of  commerce,  markets,  operations  and  so 
forth.  These  are  the  questions  that  plunged  the 
world  into  war.  We  are  realizing  to-day  that  no 
merely  national  grouping  of  Christians  is  suffi- 
cient. The  Protestant  Reformation  did  a  great 
many  marvelous  things  for  which  we  are  lastingly 
thankful  but  it  was  guilty  of  one  gross  error  when 
it  broke  up  the  international,  or  if  I  may  use  the 
word  supernational,  organization  of  the  Christian 
Church.  Little  groups  of  internationally  minded 
socialists  tried  to  get  together  during  the  War  to 
act  as  centers  of  peace  and  reconclhation.     The 


loo     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

Church  of  Jesus  Christ  to  which  had  been  given 
the  message  of  reconciliation  was  paralyzed. 
OurRoman  brethren,  while  they  sacrificed  much, 
kept  at  least  in  name,  the  supernational  organiza- 
tion and  though  they  did  not  succeed  in  doing  very 
much  for  the  record  of  the  Papacy  during  the  war, 
still  there  was  a  meeting  place,  where  representa- 
tives of  the  belligerents  could  see  each  other, 
where  the  Pope  could  intervene  as  he  is  said  to 
have  intervened  by  Cardinal  Mercier  on  behalf 
of  the  people  of  Belgium  and  certainly  to-day  we 
feel  that  if  the  world  is  to  be  held  together,  the 
Christian  Church  must  be  grouped  supernation- 
ally,  our  fellowship  must  be  realized  in  some  tan- 
gible form.  Take  those  four  factors,  historical  — 
clearing  the  ground;  social  —  increasing  the  need; 
experimental  —  removing  the  terrors  due  to  mis- 
understanding and  practically  forcing  the  neces- 
sity of  some  organization  of  the  fellowship  for 
constructive  service  upon  us;  and  are  not  these 
factors  in  the  mind  of  the  Master  for  our  own 
day? 

It  is  said  by  some  that  it  would  be  an  unwise 
thing  to  unite  the  Protestant  communions  because 
that  would  leave  aside  the  Roman,  the  Eastern 
and  non-Evangelical  Churches.  Let  us  look  at 
these  three  things  for  a  moment.  I  think  we  all 
believe  that  we  cannot  regard  our  union  of  the 
Christian   Church   as   satisfactory  if  we   do  not 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER         loi 

include  the  Church  of  Rome.  But  shall  we  be 
further  from  Rome  or  Rome  further  from  us,  if 
we  in  the  Protestant  communions  manage  to  group 
ourselves  in  some  functioning  Unity?  I  do  not 
think  we  shall.  With  regard  to  the  Eastern 
Churches,  who  knows  what  the  condition  of  the 
Church  is  in  Russia  and  how  that  Church  will 
emerge  from  these  cataclysmical  days.  We  see 
already  signs  of  change,  of  awakening  in  the  East- 
ern Church,  the  Balkans,  out  through  Syria,  in  the 
near  East,  and  surely  we  shall  not  be  further  re- 
moved from  our  Eastern  brethren  if  we  take  down 
the  endless  divisions  whch  exist  among  ourselves 
and  present  a  well-united  front  than  we  now  do  to 
the  real  foe  —  selfishness,  injustice,  wrong  in  the 
world. 

And  with  regard  to  our  non-Evangelical  breth- 
ren, while  we  admire  their  genuine  Christianity, 
at  the  present  time,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  a  feasi- 
ble thing  to  bind  them  into  a  practical  Unity  with 
ourselves  without  sacrificing  larger  sections  of  the 
Evangelical  Christians  to-day  so  that  for  the  time 
being  no  doubt  we  shall  have  to  go  on  without 
them  and  our  Union  will  not  remove  us  further 
from  them  nor  them  further  from  us. 

So  that  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  we 
should  hold  ourselves  back.  With  regard  to  the 
present  situation,  let  us  be  thankful  for  move- 
ments already  on  foot.     Let  us  be  thankful  for 


I02      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

the  work  done  by  the  Federal  Council  of  the 
Churches,  let  us  be  grateful  for  this  movement  at 
present  underway,  the  Inter-Church  Movement 
that  is  trying  to  bind  us  together  as  partners  in  a 
common  task.  Let  us  welcome  with  cordiality 
what  seems  to  me  far  more  reaching  a  movement, 
that  resulting  in  the  conference  recently  held  with 
representatives  of  most  of  our  Protestant  com- 
munions in  our  country,  which  has  suggested  the 
name  The  United  Church  of  America,  and  a  coun- 
cil over  these  communions  which  will  have  certain 
duties  laid  upon  it  to  unify  the  aggressive  work  of 
the  churches  and  where  possible  to  bring  about 
economy  and  cooperation  where  there  has  been 
needless  overlapping. 

But  all  these  together  hardly  satisfy  the  aspira- 
tions of  our  souls.  Our  aspirations  as  we  look 
back  upon  the  mind  of  Jesus  Christ  cannot  be  for 
anything  less  than  fellowship,  fellowship  in  teach- 
ing, fellowship  in  action,  fellowship  in  the  break- 
ing of  bread  and  in  prayers.  And  until  we  can 
have  that  further  fellowship,  we  cannot  hope  to 
realize,  as  we  wish  to  realize,  the  corporate  solid- 
arity as  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  would  be  presumptuous  for  me  even  to  sug- 
gest steps  in  the  right  direction.  I  am  glad  that 
the  speaker  next  week  has  for  his  subject:  "  The 
Next  Step."  But  certainly,  if  one  interprets  the 
mind  of  Christ  at  all  correctly,  the  next  step  is 


THE  MIND  OF  THE  MASTER         103 

not  something  to  be  deferred  till  some  remote  to- 
morrow, but  a  step  which  ought  to  be  taken  now. 

Historical  investigation  —  clearing  the  way, 
the  social  conscience  comes  in  with  its  demand 
for  fellowship,  experience  with  one  another  has 
broken  down  suspicion,  misunderstanding,  made  it 
easy  for  us  to  work  together,  soul  with,  soul,  and 
practical  —  the  task  before  us,  the  urgent  necessi* 
ties  of  the  world  cry  out  for  this  Unity. 

Let  me  leave  you  with  a  single  picture.  It  is 
not  a  great  work  of  art.  It  hangs  up  here  on 
the  wall  of  our  Metropolitan  Museum,  represent- 
ing the  crusaders  in  sight  of  the  Holy  City. 
Down  in  the  corner  of  the  canvas  the  artist  has 
sketched  the  domes  and  flat  roofs  of  Jerusalem. 
Up  above  the  sky  line  the  figure  of  Jesus  Christ, 
not  seated  in  kingly  majesty  and  in  majestic  and 
commanding  repose,  but  Jesus  Christ  sitting  eager, 
with  the  print  of  the  nails  In  his  hands  and  feet 
inviting  his  people  to  go  with  him,  and  in  the  cen- 
ter of  the  canvas  a  great  host  of  horsemen  and 
footmen  marching  to  make  that  City,  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  infidel,  the  City  of  the  Living  God. 
It  cannot  be  done  by  a  part  of  the  host.  It  can 
scarcely  be  done  by  the  whole  host  together. 

And  is  that  not  the  picture  that  concerns  me 
to-day?  The  cities  of  men  to  be  made  the  cities 
of  God,  binding  us  together  in  devotion,  bidding  us 
to  go  on  that  the  body  of  Christ  may  be  made 


I04     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

triumphant  on  the  earth  and  we  here  feeling  our- 
selves One,  really  One,  longing  for  some  practical 
outward  manifestation  of  that  Oneness  that  shall 
make  us  one  effective  host  to  take  these  cities  and 
make  Jesus  Christ  their  King. 


THE  NEXT  STEP 
By  the  Rt.  Rev.  Ethelbert  Talbot,  D.D. 

As  it  was  not  my  privilege  to  hear  the  several 
addresses  which  have  preceded  this,  I  hope  I  may 
be  pardoned  if  inadvertently  I  shall  touch  upon 
some  of  the  same  ground  as  that  traversed  by 
others. 

It  is  at  least  suggestive  that  the  title  of  this  last 
address  of  the  series  assigned  to  me  is  the  "  Next 
Step,"  for  that  would  seem  to  imply  that  we 
reahze  that  the  great  objective  for  which  we  are 
all  striving  can  only  be  reached  by  taking  a  step 
at  a  time. 

In  our  consideration  of  the  subject  of  Church 
Unity,  in  all  of  its  phases,  we  have  abundant  rea- 
son for  encouragement  in  the  fact  that  never  be- 
fore, since  division  began,  has  there  been  such  a 
deep  and  widespread  and  intelligent  and  above 
all,  prayerful  interest  in  it  as  now. 

While  nothing  is  gained  by  passing  judgment 
upon  those  who  were  called  to  lead  the  Church 
in  days  gone  by,  and  still  less  in  stirring  up  the 
old  controversies  and  fanning  into  flame  the  dying 
embers  of  post-reformation  debates  about  forms 
and  ceremonies,  which  now  seem  to  us  so  trivial, 


io6      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

we  must  all  in  fairness  admit  that  our  Forefathers 
in  our  several  Churches  behaved  in  such  a  manner 
that  they  simply  made  division  inevitable.  In 
other  words,  the  temper  then  was  inflammatory, 
dangerous  and  angry.  One  can  hardly  be  sur- 
prised that  Episcopacy,  for  instance,  was  thor- 
oughly despised  by  Non-conformists  at  that 
stormy  period  when  it  allowed  itself  to  be  identi- 
fied with  Royalty  and  especially  when  the  crown 
of  Royalty  was  worn  by  such  a  representative  as 
King  James.  That  Hampton  Court  Conference 
was  a  deplorable  example  of  a  lost  opportunity. 
It  was  on  that  occasion  that  James  exclaimed, 
"  If  you  aim  at  a  Scotch  Presbytery,  it  agreeth 
as  well  with  Monarchy  as  God  and  the  Devil. 
Then  Jack  and  Tom  and  Dick  will  meet  and  cen- 
sure me  and  my  council."  The  King's  last  words 
as  he  left  the  room,  were  ill-omened.  "  I  will 
make  them  conform  or  I  will  harry  them  out  of 
the  land  or  else  do  worse."  The  King  was  speak- 
ing for  the  Bishops.  The  Episcopal  Church  in  this 
country  to-day  still  labors  under  the  prejudice  in- 
herited from  those  stormy  and  unfortunate  days 
when  Bishops  allowed  themselves  to  be  associated 
in  the  public  mind  with  aristocracy  and  pride,  with 
bigotry,  intolerance  and  persecution.  A  similar 
spirit  of  angry  and  relentless  disputation  animated 
all  the  Churches  at  that  time.  None  of  us  can 
claim  immunity  from  it.     It  was  in  the  air  and 


THE  NEXT  STEP  107 

everywhere  in  evidence.  Let  us  thank  God  that 
to-day  all  is  different.  As  some  one  has  said,  the 
war  has  flung  us  all  into  a  new  world.  Through 
what  we  love  to  think  and  believe  has  been  the 
Divine  leading,  we  have  now  been  vouchsafed  an 
atmosphere  congenial,  not  to  controversy,  but  to 
agreement. 

Church  Unity  can  never  come  until  the  spirit  of 
Christian  Unity  has  become  so  strong  as  to  be 
Irresistible.  By  Christian  Unity  we  mean  that 
strong  bond  of  union  between  disciples  of  our 
Lord  that  enables  us  to  recognize  His  claim  upon 
our  allegiance  as  absolutely  preeminent.  The 
very  core  of  the  heart  of  Christianity  is  love  for 
Jesus  Christ.  In  the  past  It  has  often  been  too 
true  that  we  have  been  adherents  of  a  system, 
lovers  of  an  institution,  devotees  of  our  particular 
Church  or  Theological  School  of  thought,  mem- 
bers of  a  party,  or  believers  in  a  religion  primarily 
when  we  ought  to  be  first  of  all,  and  perhaps  in 
some  ways  last  of  all,  lovers  of  a  Person.  That 
is,  we  have  been  wont  to  lay  stress  upon  the  things 
which  divide,  which  we  do  not  share  with  all  Chris- 
tians. Hence  have  followed  disunion,  strike,  and 
all  the  unlovely  sides  of  religion.  Among  the  first 
disciples  of  Christ  this  was  the  one  thing  of  which 
there  was  no  doubt,  namely  the  love  for  Christ. 
They,  like  ourselves,  were  people  of  entirely  differ- 
ent  temperaments   and  gifts,  but  they  were   all 


io8      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

alike  in  this:  each  one  could  say  from  his  soul, 
"  Lord,  Thou  knowest  all  things.     Thou  knowest 
that  I  love  Thee."     More  and  more,  I  seem  to 
see  among  Christians  of  to-day  an  emergence  of 
that  spirit.     Devout  men  In  Increasing  numbers 
are  becoming  weary  of  the  futility  of  conflict,  and 
are  looking  for  some  hope  of  a  better  understand- 
ing; they  are  sick  of  the  party  cries  and  shibbo- 
leths and  longing  for  that  wider  fellowship  which 
must  ultimately  unify  the  Church  of  Christ  and 
make  it  effective  In  the  discharge  of  its  mission 
in  the  world.     The  love  of  Jesus  Christ  has  ac- 
complished this.     It  is  a  rediscovery  of  the  great 
fundamental  which  is  destined  to  be  the  breath  of 
Fife  to  a  divided  Church  and  make  brother  grasp 
the  hand  of  brother  with  a  grip  of  good  fellow- 
ship and  mutual  trust,   and  when  that  personal 
love  for  Christ  has  been  perfected  the  pass-word 
for  the  regenerated  Church  which  alone  will  be 
worthy  of  her  will  be,  "  Peace  to  all  those  who 
love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity." 

In  addressing  myself  to  the  question  of  Church 
Unity,  for  whose  favorable  consideration  such  a 
congenial  atmosphere  has  been,  by  the  leading  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  created,  will  you  permit  me  to  say 
that  in  my  humble  judgment  the  "  Next  Step  "  is 
to  endeavor  to  unite,  so  far  as  Is  possible,  our  vari- 
ous Evangelical  Churches  into  which  so  much  of 


THE  NEXT  STEP  109 

our  American  Christianity  is  divided,  so  as  to 
form  a  visible  Organic  Union. 

Towards  the  accompHshment  of  this  object, 
two  important  beginnings  have  been  made.  I 
refer  in  the  first  place  to  the  plan  of  union  adopted 
early  in  February  last,  by  the  American  Council 
of  Churches,  on  the  initiative  of  the  General  As- 
sembly of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  And  sec- 
ondly, to  an  "  Approach  towards  Unity "  now 
known  as  the  Concordat,  created  by  a  joint  con- 
ference between  a  group  of  distinguished  Congre- 
gational brethren,  and  a  similar  group  of  members 
of  the  Episcopal  Church.  They  are  both  con- 
fessedly simply  steps  in  the  direction  of  such  an 
ideal  Unity  as  that  contemplated  in  the  prayer  of 
our  Divine  Lord.  But  they  are  both  significant 
and  full  of  promise  if  carried  out  and  made  ef- 
fectual. 

Let  us  consider  briefly  the  claims  of  each  of 
these  movements. 

At  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Presbyterian  Church  held  In  Columbus 
in  May,  19 18,  a  resolution  was  passed  with  great 
enthusiasm  that  a  commission  on  Organic  Union 
of  the  Evangelical  Churches  of  America  be  at 
once  appointed  and  Instructed  to  hold  as  soon  as 
practicable  a  conference  to  consider  a  plan  or 
plans  for  such  union,  to  which  conference  the  vari- 


no      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

ous  Evangelical  Churches  should  be  cordially  in- 
vited to  send  delegates.  Such  a  conference  was 
held  in  Philadelphia  on  the  first  week  in  De- 
cember, 19 1 8.  Representatives  of  seventeen 
Churches  responded  to  the  invitation  and  were 
present  at  the  conference.  The  spirit  that  pre- 
vailed was  admirable.  It  was  evident  that  a 
heartfelt  longing  for  Unity  moved  all  who  took 
part  in  the  proceedings. 

It  was  unanimously  agreed  among  us  that  the 
great  world  crisis  through  which  we  had  passed 
had  laid  upon  the  Christian  Church  new  obliga- 
tions and  duties  which  we  may  not  disregard. 
The  common  ideals  and  dangers  which  have  come 
to  the  front  in  the  great  War  have  developed 
many  latent  forces  which  we  must  be  quick  to  con- 
serve. Moreover  It  was  thought  that  the  unanim- 
ity with  which  our  American  people  in  the  face 
of  their  many  differing  traditions  of  creed  and 
practice  were  able  to  fuse  themselves  into  one 
body  for  the  common  weal  of  the  nation  and  the 
world  may  be  regarded  as  a  prophecy  full  of  hope 
of  what  the  Church  might  accomplish  by  coming 
into  a  like  Unity  in  the  interests  of  that  great 
Kingdom  so  dear  to  the  heart  of  our  Master  and 
His  loyal  disciples. 

The  mere  fact  that  such  a  conference  was  called 
with  such  an  object  in  view  is  profoundly  signifi- 
cant of  a  decided  change  of  attitude  towards  the 


THE  NEXT  STEP  m 

subject  of  Organic  Union.  The  wide  and  cordial 
response  to  the  call  was  likewise  suggestive  of 
progress  towards  the  desired  goal.  Such  a  meet- 
ing with  such  response  could  not  have  been  held 
even  ten  years  ago. 

It  is  even  more  worthy  of  note  that  the  Con- 
ference also  expressed  its  conviction  that  our 
Divine  Master  is  now  challenging  His  disciples 
to  conquer  the  divisive  elements  which  segregate 
us  Into  various  and  sometimes  conflicting  bodies, 
and  under  the  guidance  of  His  spirit  to  bring  the 
manifold  treasures  which  have  been  gathered  in 
our  several  histories  and  experiences  to  a  common 
altar  and  there  devote  them  to  our  Lord  and  His 
cause. 

This  Philadelphia  Conference  representing 
seventeen  churches,  which  number  has  since  been 
greatly  increased,  emphatically  declared  that  It 
was  plainly  in  accordance  with  the  divine  purpose 
and  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  Christ  that  His 
Church  should  be  one  visible  Body  in  order  to  bear 
witness  to  Him  among  men.  It  reminded  us  that 
in  His  last  prayer  the  Savior  asks  that  His  disci- 
ples may  all  be  One  as  He  and  His  Father  are 
One,  that  the  world  may  believe  that  He  was  sent 
of  God. 

At  our  last  meeting  held  only  a  few  weeks  ago, 
early  in  February,  a  plan  of  Union  was  adopted  to 
be  presented  to  the  supreme  governing  bodies  of 


112      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

the  several  communions  when  they  shall  respect- 
ively meet.  The  following  preamble  and  plan 
were  agreed  upon. 

"  Whereas,  we  desire  to  share,  as  a  common 
heritage,  the  faith  of  the  Christian  Church,  which 
has,  from  time  to  time,  found  expression  In  great 
historic  statements;  and, 

"  Whereas,  we  all  share  belief  In  God  our 
Father;  In  Jesus  Christ;  His  only  Son,  our  Savior; 
In  the  Holy  Spirit,  our  Guide  and  Comforter;  In 
the  Holy  Catholic  Church,  through  which  God's 
eternal  purpose  of  salvation  Is  to  be  proclaimed 
and  the  Kingdom  of  God  Is  to  be  realized  on 
earth;  In  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments,  as  containing  God's  revealed  will,  and 
In  the  life  eternal;  and, 

*'  Whereas,  having  the  same  spirit  and  owning 
the  same  Lord,  we  none  the  less  recognize  divers- 
ity of  gifts  and  ministrations  for  whose  exercise 
due  freedom  must  always  be  afforded  In  forms  of 
worship  and  in  modes  of  operation.'* 

Plan: 

Now  we,  the  Churches,  hereto  assenting,  do 
hereby  agree  to  associate  ourselves  In  a  vislbld 
body  to  be  known  as  the  United  Churches  of 
America,  for  the  furtherance  of  the  redemptive 
work  of  Christ  In  the  world. 

"  In  the  Interest  of  the  freedom  of  each  and  of 
the  cooperation  of  all,   each  constituent  Church 


THE  NEXT  STEP  113 

reserves  the  right  to  retain  its  credal  statements, 
its  form  of  government  in  the  conduct  of  its  own 
affairs,  and  its  particular  mode  of  worship. 

''  In  taking  this  step,  we  look  forward  with 
confident  hope  to  that  complete  Unity  toward 
which  we  believe  the  Spirit  of  God  is  leading  us. 
Once  we  shall  have  cooperated  whole-heartedly 
in  such  visible  body,  in  the  holy  activities  of  the 
work  of  the  Church,  we  are  persuaded  that  our 
differences  will  be  minimized  and  our  Union  be- 
come more  vital  and  effective. 

"  The  United  Churches  of  Christ  in  America 
shall  act  through  a  Council  and  through  such  ex- 
ecutive and  judicial  commissions  or  administrative 
boards,  working  ad  interim  as  such  Council  may 
from  time  to  time  appoint  and  ordain." 

You  will  note  that  this  organization  does  not 
claim  to  be  the  ideal  plan  of  Organic  Union  which 
its  constituent  members  have  in  view.  It  is  only 
a  "  First  Step  "  whose  aim  is  to  create  an  atmos- 
phere of  mutual  understanding  in  which  alone  the 
visible  Organic  Unity  aimed  at  can  ever  be  real- 
ized. This  movement,  as  will  be  readily  seen, 
differs  from  the  Federal  Council,  the  Inter-Church 
World  Movement,  and  all  other  similar  organ- 
izations in  that  it  has  for  its  goal  the  visible 
Organic  Unity  of  the  several  Churches  into  one 
body.  It  goes  very  much  further  in  its  object 
than  mere  federation.     At  the  same  time,  it  recog- 


114      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

nizes  the  great  advantage  of  federation  in  help- 
ing to  generate  the  atmosphere  of  mutual  under- 
standing in  which  the  final  objective  can  alone 
be  realized.  Its  aim  will  be  to  cultivate  the  most 
cordial  relations  with  all  movements  making  for 
a  closer  cooperation  among  Christian  people  in 
the  redemptive  work  of  Christ. 

As  one  very  important  result  of  this  movement, 
it  is  confidently  hoped  and  believed  that  a  number 
of  Churches  of  like  polity  and  forms  of  worship 
will  gradually  be  merged  into  one  communion,  thus 
greatly  lessening  the  number  of  separate  Churches, 
and  giving  great  relief  from  the  economic  waste 
and  rivalry  resulting  from  division  in  many  towns 
and  villages  overburdened  with  far  too  many 
Churches.  A  number  of  these  mergers  as  you 
know  are  now  in  the  process  of  being  formed. 

We  come  now  to  consider  what  is  known  as  the 
Concordat.  Whether  this  proposed  approach  to 
Unity  will  work,  whether  it  is  practicable,  whether 
it  will  be  helpful  or  harmful  in  its  practical  effects, 
there  is  room  indeed  for  wide  differences  of  opin- 
ion among  representatives  of  both  Churches  who 
are  equally  wise,  equally  good  and  equally  loyal. 
The  Concordat  provides  that  in  case  a  Congrega- 
tionalist  or  any  other  non-episcopal  minister  ap- 
plies to  a  bishop  for  episcopal  ordination  he  shall 
satisfy  the  bishop  that  he  holds  the  historic  faith 
of  the  Church  as  contained  in  the  Apostles'  Creed 


THE  NEXT  STEP  115 

and  the  NIcene  Creed,  that  he  shall  be  confirmed, 
that  he  shall  be  ordained  deacon  and  priest,  that 
he  shall  thereafter  use  a  prescribed  form  of  words 
in  celebrating  the  Holy  Communion,  and  invaria- 
bly use  the  elements  of  bread  and  wine  in  that 
Sacrament,  and  that  he  shall  continue  permanently 
in  relation  with  the  bishop  and  under  his  guidance 
and  direction  while  at  the  same  time  remaining 
as  pastor,  at  the  request  of  his  congregation,  over 
his  own  people  just  as  heretofore. 

We  cannot  but  regard  it  as  very  remarkable 
that  the  eminent  and  Christian  brethren  whose 
names  are  signed  to  this  proposal  are  ready  to 
assent  to  these  conditions.  Do  we  fully  realize 
what  it  means?  Never  before  have  a  group  of 
representative  Protestant  ministers  purely  for  the 
sake  of  the  great  cause  of  Unity  been  willing  to  go 
so  far  as  this.  Surely  the  step  for  them  is  a  revo- 
lutionary one.  It  requires  much  grace  and  true 
religion  for  such  men  to  be  willing  to  take  such 
a  step.  The  question  on  the  part  of  the  Episco- 
pal Church  is,  have  we  a  right  to  ask  more  than 
this  of  those  men,  as  a  condition  of  Unity?  That 
is  the  question  which  those  who  have  been  en- 
gaged in  this  important  matter  have  had  to  ask 
themselves  in  the  sight  of  God.  Some  of  our 
people  have  objected  to  the  proposal  on  the 
ground  that  although  the  minister  thus  applying 
will   have  been  confirmed   and  ordained  to   the 


ii6     THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

priesthood,  the  people  of  his  congregation  will  not 
have  been  required  to  be  confirmed.  While  this 
might  be  regarded  as  unfortunate  it  is  surely  not 
an  insuperable  objection.  Indeed  as  a  matter  of 
fact  for  one  hundred  years  no  one  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  in  this  country,  was  confirmed  because 
we  had  no  bishops  and  yet  the  Church,  though  it 
suffered  through  this  neglect,  still  survived. 
This  was  a  case  of  emergency.  So  likewise  the 
situation  created  by  these  proposals  for  the  heal- 
ing of  the  wounds  in  the  Body  of  Christ  may  well 
be  considered  an  emergency.  No  one  claims  that 
confirmation  is  a  prerequisite  to  salvation.  Con- 
firmation will  take  care  of  itself,  it  is  thought,  in 
all  probability  when  the  plan  becomes  an  accom- 
plished fact  and  begins  to  function.  At  best  both 
sides  realize  that  it  Is  only  a  temporary  arrange- 
ment —  an  approach  towards  the  full  realization 
of  Unity.  The  Congregatlonallsts  feel  this  quite 
as  strongly  as  we  do.  Think  what  the  situation 
will  be.  The  minister  will  have  been  confirmed 
and  ordained  priest.  His  people  will  have  for- 
mally assented  to  this.  They  and  their  minister 
will  be  In  regular  and  stated  relation  with  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese.  Unquestionably  If  the 
matter  of  confirmation  be  left  to  adjust  Itself 
many  will  desire  naturally  to  receive  that  blessing. 
It  seems  to  me  that  if  men  are  deeply  and 
earnestly  desirous  of  Unity,  the  principle  of  give 


THE  NEXT  STEP  117 

and  take  wherever  no  conviction  is  sacrificed  on 
either  side  should  prevail. 

The  meaning  of  the  Concordat  is  not  that  either 
side  expects  to  make  Congregationalists  or  Meth- 
odists or  Presbyterians  into  Episcopalians. 
Surely  that  is  not  what  we  mean  by  Unity. 
Rather  we  desire  to  see  them,  yes  and  to  see  our- 
selves also,  lifted  up  and  out  of  our  present  di- 
visions and  sectarianisms  into  the  full  life  and  fel- 
lowship of  the  Catholic  Church  of  Scripture  and 
history.  Therefore  the  Congregationalists  who 
accept  this  arrangement  will  not  be  technically  in 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Episcopal  Church. 
They  will  not  be  subject  to  the  canon  law  of  the 
Episcopal  Church.  They  will  have  entire  liberty 
as  to  the  use  of  the  Prayer  Book,  vestments,  and 
ceremonies,  and  will  probably  not  use  the  Prayer 
Book  any  more  than  they  do  at  present;  at  any 
rate  that  will  be  entirely  their  own  affair.  But 
they  will  be  without  question  in  the  full  Commun- 
ion and  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church 
of  history  and  of  the  Creeds.  They  will  hold  the 
historic  faith  as  therein  set  forth,  they  will  accept 
the  scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  as 
the  Word  of  God,  they  will  have  the  priesthood 
and  the  sacraments,  and  they  will  be  in  commun- 
ion with  a  Catholic  bishop  and  under  his  guidance 
and  direction.  In  short,  if  carried  out,  this  cou- 
rageous step  on  the  part  of  these  congregations 


ii8      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

may  be  an  epoch-making  one.  It  may  prove  to 
be  the  greatest  practical  step  in  the  direction  of 
Unity  since  disunity  began. 

The  plan  was  presented  at  our  late  General 
Convention  and  initial  action  was  taken  in  regard 
to  it.  The  General  Convention  also  provided  a 
Joint  Commission  to  which  was  referred  the 
whole  subject.  Our  Congregational  brethren,  on 
their  part  at  their  National  Council,  took  corre- 
sponding action  by  appointing  a  commission  to 
continue  the  conferences  with  our  own  commis- 
sion. In  a  recent  issue  the  "  Congregationalist," 
published  in  Boston,  referring  to  the  action  taken 
by  our  Convention  said:  "Our  Council  in  re- 
sponse has  appointed  a  similar  commission.  The 
joint  commission  has  a  right  to  ask  for  suspense  of 
hasty  criticism,  for  patient  waiting,  and  for 
prayerful  consideration  and  help.  We  should 
have  the  final  conclusions  of  the  commission  be- 
fore us  before  we  make  up  our  minds  in  regard  to 
the  price  which  evidently  must  be  paid  by  both 
parties  to  such  an  agreement  for  manifest  gains  of 
brotherly  cooperation  and  united  witness." 

Unquestionably  there  is  abundant  evidence  that 
through  the  operation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  the  out- 
come of  each  of  these  important  movements  may 
prove  to  be  most  helpful.  But  just  because  there 
is  such  eager  desire  for  some  kind  of  Unity  there 
IS  great  danger  that  the  Churches  may  commit  the 


THE  NEXT  STEP  119 

fatal  mistake  of  adopting  some  form  of  mere 
federation  instead  of  securing  a  genuine  and  Or- 
ganic Union.  To  be  satisfied  with  any  Concordat 
or  system  of  working  together  while  retaining  the 
autonomy  of  existing  Independent  Churches  as  a 
final  objective,  would  be  to  delude  ourselves  with  a 
superficial  and  temporary  expedient.  It  would 
be  a  Unity  like  that  of  a  rope  of  sand.  No  kind 
of  Unity  short  of  the  Ideal  for  which  our  blessed 
Lord  prayed  Is  worthy  of  our  serious  thought  or 
effort.  That  Unity  must  come  as  a  spiritual 
change  and  must  be  preceded  by  many  gracious 
quickenlngs  and  Impulses  if  it  Is  to  have  any  per- 
manent value.  It  Is  not  mechanical  but  vital. 
It  cannot  be  through  the  Prussian  method  of  con- 
quest and  submission.  "  The  flower  appears 
after  the  gentle  rain  and  summer  warmth  have 
awakened  the  seed."  It  must  be  a  Unity  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  Apostles  and  Pro- 
phets, Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  cornerstone. 
It  must  be  rooted  and  grounded  In  our  love  for 
Him.  It  may  be  a  Unity  of  the  spirit  in  the 
bond  of  peace.  It  can  never  be  adequately  ex- 
pressed simply  in  the  cooperation  of  the  Chris- 
tian Churches  for  moral  Influence  and  social  ser- 
vice, though  such  cooperation  is  altogether  desir- 
able and  might  well  be  carried  much  further  than 
it  is  at  present.  But  it  cannot  be  too  clearly  un- 
derstood that  Organic  Union  can  only  be  fully  re- 


120      THE  PROBLEM  OF  CHRISTIAN  UNITY 

alized  through  community  of  worship,  faith  and 
order,  including  above  all  other  requirements  com- 
mon participation  in  the  Lord's  Supper.  There 
must  be  some  standardization  of  the  Christian 
Ministry  that  inter-Communion  may  be  fully  real- 
ized. This  by  no  means  implies  a  dead  uniform- 
ity, but  would  be  quite  compatible  with  a  rich  di- 
versity in  life  and  practice  as  to  non-essentials. 

Encouraged  by  such  irenic  spirit  between  the 
Churches  as  we  now  have,  and  having  reached  the 
point  when  we  regard  the  visible  Unity  of  the 
Body  of  Christ  as  the  precious  pearl  of  great 
price  for  which  we  are  willing  to  sell  all  that  is 
purely  our  own,  and  not  a  trust  committed  to  our 
keeping  by  God,  and  thus  purchase  Unity  at  what- 
ever cost  or  sacrifice  of  pride  or  prejudice,  are  we 
not  now  approaching  the  time  when  we  shall  be 
ready  to  seek  the  best  way  out  of  the  tangle  of 
the  centuries?  As  Christian  men  shall  we  not 
soon  be  ready  and  prepared  to  face  frankly  and 
fearlessly  the  real  issues  and  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem which  in  God's  providence  he  has  so  plainly 
placed  before  us? 

What  is  it  now  that  divides  the  Churches? 
Largely  it  is  a  question  not  of  faith  but  of  order 
or  church  government.  Thank  God,  that  in  the 
realm  of  faith  there  is  little  that  need  give  us 
serious  concern  or  longer  keep  us  apart.  On  all 
the  great  fundamental  verities  of  our  holy  reli- 


THE  NEXT  STEP  121 

gion,  at  least  among  the  evangelical  bodies  into 
which  American  Christianity  is  divided  there  is 
substantial  agreement. 

Unity  cannot  be  brought  about  by  way  of  any 
compromise  which  is  at  the  cost  or  sacrifice  of 
conscientious  convictions  or  by  the  surrender  of 
any  cherished  principle.  Nor  can  it  be  achieved 
by  asking  any  communion  to  repudiate  or  disown 
its  past  but  only  by  adopting  some  plan  whereby 
each  Church  may  have  the  privilege  of  contribut- 
ing of  the  wealth  distinctive  of  each  to  the  com- 
mon enrichment  of  the  United  Church,  and  this 
not  by  way  of  grudging  concessions  but  of  hearty 
and  grateful  acceptance  of  some  well  tried  basis 
upon  which  Christian  liberty  can  be  reconciled  by 
law.  It  goes  without  saying  that  in  such  a  re- 
united Church  the  principle  of  democracy  should 
be  all  pervasive;  that  kind  of  democracy  which  is 
animated  not  by  a  determination  to  possess  every 
right  which  another  has;  but  rather  by  a  desire 
to  insist  that  the  other  shall  have  whatever  right 
we  may  possess.  This  spirit  can  only  be  vouch- 
safed us  in  answer  to  prayer  that  the  great  Head 
of  the  Church,  our  Divine  Savior,  will  accom- 
plish in,  and  through  his  humble  servants,  the  ful- 
fillment of  His  Holy  Will. 


THE   END 

PKINTED   IN    THIS    UNITED    STATES    01"   AMERICA 


APPENDIX 


Officers  of  the  Christian  Unity 
Foundation 

Acting  President 
Rt.  Rev.  Edwin  S.  Lines,  D.D. 

Vice-Presidents 

RT.  Rev.  Edward  M.  Parker,  D.D.   D.C.L. 

Rt.  Rev.  Philip  M.  Rhinelander   D.D,  LL.U. 

Rt  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Garland,  DJ)^D.C.L. 

Rt.  Rev.  Boyd  Vincent,  D.D. 

R.  Fulton  Cutting,  Esq. 

Secretary 

Rev.  William  Chauncey  Emhardt 

*  Newtown,  Bucks  Co.,  Pa. 

Treasurer 
Origen  S.  Seymour,  Esq. 
52  William  St.,  N.  Y.  City 

Trustees 
Rt   Rev.  Edwin  S.  Lines,  D.D. 
Rt.  Rev.  Boyd  Vincent.  D.D. 
RT.  Rev.  Edward  M.  Parker,  D.D.,  D.C.L. 
Rt.  Rev.  Philip  M.  Rhinelander   D.D,  LL.D. 
Rt  Rev.  Thomas  J.  Garland,  DT).,  D.C.L. 
Rev.  Peter  Ainslie,  D.D. 
Rev.  Charles  L.  Slattery,  D.D. 
Rev.  George  W.  Douglas,  D.U. 
Rev   Anson  P.  Atterbury,  D.D. 
Rev.  Reese  F.  Alsop,  D.D. 
Rev.  St.  Clair  Hester,  D.D. 
Rev  William  Pierson  Merrill,  D.D. 
Rev.  Robert  E.  Jones,  D.D. 
Rev.  Rockland  Tyng  Romans 
Rev.  Frederick  Lynch,  D.D. 
Rev   William  Chauncey  Emhardt 
Hon.  Morris  Seymour 
Origen  S.  Seymour,  Esq. 
R.  Fulton  Cutting,  Esq. 
David  B.  Ogden,  Esq. 
William  Fellowes  Morgan,  Esq. 
William  Jay  Shieffelin,  Esq. 
Samuel  F.  Houston,  Esq. 
125 


Study  Number  Five 

CHRISTIAN  UNITY  FOUNDATION  SERIES 

The  Christian  Unity  Foundation  is  a  purely  vol- 
untary and  unofficial  organization.  Its  purpose  is  to  pro- 
mote Christian  Unity  by  the  method  of  Education, 
Research  and  Conference. 

Ages  in  the  past  have  emphasized  the  power  of  compe- 
tition but  to-day  cooperation  is  the  great  ideal  towards 
which  all  departments  of  human  activity  are  tending. 
A  growing  sense  of  the  evils  involved  in  disunion  is  now 
apparent.  Men  and  women  of  every  religious  name  are 
realizing  the  wickedness  and  folly  of  the  divisions  and 
sub-divisions  among  those  who  call  themselves  Christians. 

The  Christian  Unity  Foundation  is  a  pioneer  in 
the  great  field  for  affecting  the  union  of  the  discordant 
churches  of  Christendom.  Established  in  the  early  part 
of  the  year  1910  and  incorporated  under  the  State  of  New 
York  July  i8th  of  the  same  year,  the  Foundation  has 
endeavored  to  do  its  work  of  reconciliation  among  Chris- 
tians chiefly  through  "  Education,  Research  and  Confer- 
ence." By  such  means  proper  explanations  have  been 
given  of  many  misinterpretations  and  misunderstandings 
which  have  been  the  accidental  causes  of  disunion,  and  are 
still  hindrances  in  the  way  for  all  Christians  to  be  one. 

The  Foundation  believes  in  the  "  Grace  of  the  Agree- 
ing Mind  "  and  in  the  second  clause  of  its  Articles  of 
Incorporation    thus    states    its    purpose :     '*  To    promote 

126 


APPENDIX  127 

Christian  Unity  at  home  and  throughout  the  world.  To 
this  end  to  gather  and  disseminate  accurate  information 
relative  to  the  faith  and  works  of  all  Christian  bodies. 
To  devise  and  suggest  practical  methods  of  cooperation 
substituting  comity  for  rivalry  in  the  propagation  of  the 
common  faith.  To  bring  together  all  who  are  laboring 
in  the  same  field  and  this  in  the  belief  that  full  Icnowledge 
of  one  another  will  emphasize  our  actual  membership  m 
the  one  body  of  Christ  and  our  common  agreement  m  the 
essentials  of  faith."  ,1, 

In  the  fulfilment  of  such  a  purpose,  the  Foundation  has 
successfully,  with  the  help  of  its  many  friends  in  the 
great  cause  of  Christian  Unity,  and  with  the  kindly  co- 
operation of  the  Reverend  Doctor  Merrill,  pastor  of  the 
Brick  Presbyterian  Church,  been  enabled  to  present  a 
course  of  lectures  of  great  value.  In  order  to  reach  the 
greater  public,"  these  lectures  are  printed  in  book  form 
under  "  Study  Number  Five." 

Christian  Unity  is  indeed  "The  Problem  of  the 
Twentieth  Century.  What  is  needed  to-day  is  education 
information,  inspiration  upon  the  meaning  of  Church 
Unity  We  earnestly  invite  the  reader  to  study  and  ex- 
amine the  following  pages  in  the  interest  of  the  great  task 
that  is  before  all  of  us.  It  is  for  the  people  of  the  Church 
to  work  for  unity,  under  the  enlightenment  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Unity  must  come  from  the  people  to  the  leaders, 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher,  so  that  the  Body  itself  may 
be  made  ready  for  the  Master's  use. 


This    book   is    due    two   weeks    from    the    last   date 
stamoed   below,  and    if    not   returned   or    renewed   at   or 
before  that  time  a  fine  of  five  cents  a  day  will  be  incurred. 

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